Our Tiny Little Secret Garden
by Danax
Summary: After revealing her feelings towards Kakashi, Sakura left the village to complete an S ranked mission. Now she’s back and ready to live her life, but the events of her mission starts to haunt her when she realizes that the mission wasn't that successful.
1. Homecoming

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. **

So, the story wont be a long one but my honest opinion is that I like the story. (the story is already in my head.) Now you're all thinking that will there be any lemons and I say: "I don't know. Maybe!"

Sakura: 22

Naruto: 22

Sasuke: 22

Kakashi: 36

Pairings: KakaSaku, NaruHina.

Summary: After having a conversation with Kakashi, Sakura left the village to complete a S-ranked mission. Now she's back and ready to live her life.

_thoughts, flashbacks_

"talking"

* * *

PROLOGUE

Sakura watched as Kakashi was training. She knew she had to say something, hiding her feelings for the rest of her life wasn't the way she had planned her life. She wanted what almost every girl wanted, a guy then later a home with the guy then later maybe marriage and a few kids.

_This is it. This is it. I'm gonna do it now. Sakura, it's now or never! _Sakura thought and stepped from the shadows. She knew that he had sensed her before but she didn't care. Sakura walked closer to Kakashi and took a deep breath.

"What Sakura?" Kakashi asked, his voice was colder than usual.

"I wanted to tell you something." Sakura said without stammering and was glad that her voice wasn't shaky or anything.

"Yes?" Kakashi asked and turned around to see her.

"I love you." Sakura said and mentally slapped herself for saying that so directly. Kakashi just stared at her. Sakura started regretting everything she had done in her life including the last few seconds.

"Sakura. You know we can't. Even if I wanted to, we just can't. It would be easier just to be friends." Kakashi sighed sadly.

"I don't care. We are ninjas! We can die any day and you're just thinking about what everyone else would think! God, do you honestly think that it matters! You are older, so what! I'm old enough to know what I want and doesn't that count?"

"You know it—", Kakashi stopped his sentence as he realized that she was gone. He sighed, maybe he just should do as he wanted, he wanted to even try with her but his mind disagreed. He knew that they would get disgusted looks from people but he also knew that she was what he wanted, with the good sides and the bad ones too.

Kakashi continued his training and decided to go to see her the next day. Then he would tell her that he was willing to try and he would say 'sorry' for being so cold earlier.

…

The next day when Kakashi had gone to see Sakura, he only found a note where she had written that she took an S-ranked mission which is going to last for 4 years. Kakashi cursed himself for being late and he cursed that he had always passed every chance Sakura gave him to start something with her.

For the 4 years Kakashi was always afraid of getting information that her mission failed and that she was dead. He never got that kind of information, he didn't know if it was a good sign or a bad sign although he hoped that she would come back and soon.

THE END OF THE PROLOGUE

* * *

Chapter 1: Homecoming

"Fire country." Sakura sighed happily when she saw the shore. She had been gone for so long and soon she would be home again. All the long nights when she wanted to be home were gone. She had missed everyone; Ino, Naruto, Sasuke, Tenten and Kakashi. Yes, she had missed Kakashi even though she felt that he probably didn't care.

For once in her life Sakura had been truly honest with herself and she had confronted her feelings and told them. She had accepted the fact that she had fallen in love with her ex-sensei. She had told him and he turned her down by saying that it would be easier to be just friends. The thought of that conversation almost made Sakura cry.

"Sakura?" a quiet voice called her.

"Mmm?" Sakura asked and turned around to see Hinata.

"We will be arriving Fire country in a few minutes." Hinata smiled.

"Yeah. I can see the shore." Sakura said and turned around to see ocean and the distant shore.

"When we get back… Will you be living in the cottage you told me about?" Hinata asked and leaned to the banister of the ship.

"Yeah. I will probably have to clean it up first. And then I'm planning to make a small garden if there isn't one. I hope there is. Oh, Hinata. The thought of the cabin where my grandmother used to live makes me shiver. Just wow… You know, my grandfather and grandmother built it together. And I will be living there." Sakura sighed.

"Invite me for tea then, alright?" Hinata giggled.

"Definitely!"

* * *

The cabin was at the side of the village where there were no houses at all The ca.bin wasn't hidden but still not easy to find because of the trees. 

Sakura watched the 1,50 meters tall fence and the small door which lead to the yard. Sakura opened a small door in the fence and went in keeping her eyes shut all the time. When she finally opened her eyes, the view was stunning. The cabin was read and the yard had much of grass, trees and weeds but it would be perfect after she had started working with the yard.

Sakura walked hastily to the cabin and opened the door with her rusty key. There was a lot of dust in the cabin and all the furniture was covered with some white sheets. Sakura opened the windows and looked around. The first floor was just kitchen combined with living room and there was a small bathroom. After looking around the first floor she went upstairs and there was the attic and the bedroom. She opened the window of the bedroom too and breathed in the fresh air.

Sakura started cleaning the first floor right away because she knew that the sooner she started the sooner it would be done. Sakura washed the floors, dusted everything, took the sheets out of the cabin, cleaned all the plates, forks, knives, shelves, tables, chairs and the she washed the windows.

When Sakura had finished cleaning the cabin it was way past midnight and she was dirty. Sakura took a towel from her back bag and went outside; she had heard that there was a very small lake at the yard somewhere. She looked around and her heart almost dropped as she saw the lake, there were cherry blossom flowers on the water and the water was so clear that she could see the bottom of the small lake. The lake was just perfect; it was so small and pretty.

Sakura quickly undressed herself and went into the warm water. She washed her hair and felt so relaxed. She had had a feeling that the cabin was filled with secrets. The atmosphere in the cabin and at the yard was surreally romantic. She could swear that even the name of the cabin was a cabin of love.

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, sorry it's a short chapter but anyways. Drop me a review and I'll be very very very happy! Ok, 'til next chapter, buh-bye! -danax 


	2. Confrontation

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Ok, here's the chapter, this will be longer than the first one… Oh and thank you so much for the reviews, the reviews make me write more and more! I love you guys, you guys rock!

And to your lemon-lovers, I've decided that there is gonna be one lemon part in this story!

_Thoughts, dreams, flashbacks_

"…talking…"

* * *

"_Look, it's there. The garden." Kakashi said as he pressed his hands on Sakura's shoulders, he was standing right behind her. She could feel his breath on her neck, she loved the feeling. _

"_I can't see anything. There are just trees and weeds no garden. Just trees." Sakura said and tried to look for a garden but didn't saw one._

"_It's behind them. It's a secret garden." Kakashi said and Sakura felt like he was playing with her hair but he took a pink ribbon from her hair. _

"_I'll leave a mark, this pink ribbon will be a sign, the garden will be behind the ribbon." Kakashi said showing a pink ribbon to her, he let go of the ribbon. Sakura saw how the ribbon got tangled on a branch of a tree. _

"_But grandmother never told me that there is a garden. She never said anything about it." Sakura sighed._

"_Did you grandmother tell you that she build it with her husband when she was 20 year old? Or that your mother was born at that cabin?" Kakashi asked whispering into her ear and making cold shivers go down her spine._

"_How do you know all this?" she asked still looking at the ribbon.

* * *

_

Sakura woke up with a start, she dropped from her bed. For Sakura's dismay, the floor wasn't very warm.

"Ouch!" she groaned and got up from the cold floor. She sat on her bed and sighed. Even though she had dropped from the bed, spent a whole day cleaning the cabin, the place was just way too good for her, she loved it too much. Sakura just wished that she had someone to share this all with. She took a pair of pink wool socks from the floor and went to downstairs.

She put the coffee maker on and went to open the door and all the windows. She slid across the floor to the kitchen side of the room next to the coffee maker. She took a pink mug from a kitchen cabinet. She poured some extra strong coffee for her and she put two pieces of sugar in it. Then she took a small silvery spoon from a kitchen drawer. She mixed her coffee a bit with the spoon, took a sip from it, put slippers on and went outside.

Sakura just walked at the yard a bit drinking her coffee and planning her future garden. Soon she found herself standing in a familiar place. She looked at her back and remembered her dream. She looked forward but didn't see a pink ribbon. She walked towards the place where the pink ribbon would be, she moved a few branches with her other hand to see more of the yard. Her eyes found something pink, she went closer but it was hard to move because she had one hand free and in the other hand she had a coffee mug. When she had gone closer to the direction where the something pink was, she dropped the coffee mug to the ground. She was standing directly in front of a cherry blossom tree which was full of pink ribbons, every branch had them.

After admiring the tree for a while she wanted to get pass that tree to see if there really was a secret garden. Soon Sakura realized that she needed some equipment like saw and some gardening scissors. There were so many trees, weeds and bushes and none of them really belonged there.

Sighing Sakura turned around, she could not get any father from the tree. She would come back in a few hours with right equipment. Sakura took the mug from the floor and went back inside.

* * *

Sakura walked to a store where were sold gardening merchandises. Sakura wanted to buy a saw and a few pair or gardening scissors which would be made for cutting branches and forming bushes. As she stepped into the store, she swore she could easily get lost in it, it was so huge. Sakura decided that it would be best for her just to find a shop assistant to help her. 

For Sakura's good luck, the store was full of shop assistants who didn't have anything to do at the moment. She got a good looking blonde 20 year old guy to help her to find all the stuff she needed. The guy reminded her about Naruto. Sakura wondered what was going in Naruto's life; maybe she should go and see him. They hadn't seen in 4 years and that was a long time.

After paying all the stuff she had taken, Sakura left the store. The exit was signed so she didn't need any help to get out of there.

Sakura went into a café and bought one ice water. The café was very nice, there were tables inside and outside of the café, Sakura of course went outside. The table was black and made of iron, her chair was made of iron too. She took a newspaper which was on the table and started reading it.

_Nothing interesting_, Sakura thought sulkily. She remembered how newspapers kept her alive when she had been on the S-ranked mission. She had gotten the news of Konoha from the papers. She had read carefully those parts where were listed every ninja who had died hoping that Kakashi wouldn't be on that list. He never was on that list, which made her a bit happier. But then she had started to be afraid of the fact that he might had gotten some woman and he was happily married to her. Yes, Sakura was still in love with him even though she had tried to forget him, she had tried to be with other guys and well, none of the relationships had worked out. She had rushed or she just had wanted different things from those relationships.

Sakura sighed and put the newspaper back to the table. She knew she had to meet him someday. She was Konoha to stay forever except she would do some missions but not S-ranked ones anymore. She was determined to start family life before the age of 28. Realizing that she was anxious to meet everyone, Sakura got up from her chair, took her shopping bags and headed to the Jounin centre.

On her way Sakura felt Kakashi's presence near her. Her heart began beating faster and faster, it felt like her heart was trying to come out of her chest. She felt that her hands started getting sweaty. These reactions of her body told her that she still loved him, no matter what, she would, forever. Sakura closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath and continued her walk normally. She might have seemed to look like quite normal but underneath of her shell, she wanted to run to her cabin, to her bed and curl up under a blanket. She still wasn't ready to see him, not even after the four years.

"Sakura." low voice called her behind her. Her heart almost stopped but she turned around smiling to see him. The only man who could make her cry and laugh in the same second, Kakashi. He almost looked surprised to see her.

"Hi… Kakashi." Sakura smiled although smiling to him made her feel like someone was ripping her heart out of her chest.

"When did you get back?" he asked casually. His hands were in his pockets and he was wearing his usual Jounin uniform, it was like nothing had changed and like she had never been away.

"Yesterday at noon." Sakura said and shifted her gaze to her feet. It hurt too much.

There was a awkward pause while she was staring at her shoes and he was scratching the back of his head unsure of himself.

"Sakura." Kakashi said suddenly with a different tone.

"Hmm?" she asked lifting her gaze from her feet.

"I need to talk to you. It's important. Can we see later?" he asked in a very un-Kakashi-like way.

"Yeah. I live at—"

"—the cabin. I know." he grinned.

* * *

Sakura stepped into the Jounin centre and was greeted with cheers, applauds and whistles because it was the custom when someone came back alive from an S-ranked mission. Sakura blushed a little but just because she was so happy to see everyone. She took her time to greet everyone and say something about her mission, nothing relevant of course. 

Sakura sat down on a couch wearing a happy smile on her face. She was so happy to be home again. Sakura saw Ino walking across the room not noticing her on the couch. Then for a second Ino looked at Sakura and turned her head away. Then Ino looked again Sakura, as if she just realized who Sakura actually was. Sakura heard a small scream and the next thing she knew Ino was sitting next to her on the couch and hugging her.

"You're alive! You're alive! Oh my god! You're alive! You are here! Oh my god, I missed you so much girl!" Ino cried.

"Hey, take it easy. I'm gonna be here for a long time. We have the time to catch up and all…" Sakura said quietly and hugged Ino a bit more tightly.

"I know. But I just missed you so much!" Ino kept crying on Sakura's shoulder.

"I missed you too." Sakura started crying too; Ino had always had that effect on her, when Ino cried, Sakura started crying too. So the girls just sat there hugging each other and crying. Sakura's eyes started to literally dry after crying 5 minutes, she had to let go of Ino and start rubbing her eyes.

"Have you seen him already?" Ino asked quietly. Sakura knew exactly who she meant, Kakashi. Ino was the first and the only one who knew about Sakura's feelings towards him.

"Yeah, I saw him something like 2 hours ago." Sakura sighed sadly.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Ino asked looking straight into Sakura's eyes.

"Yeah… I guess you can't help love, it just happens. Love is blind." the pink haired woman sneered.

"You're right." Ino smiled.

"So how 'bout your love life?" Sakura asked.

"I'm happily single." Ino giggled.

"Not for long…" Sakura laughed.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?!"

"What is the longest time you've actually been single?" Sakura asked.

"Um…"

* * *

Sakura put all her shopping bags to the floor. She took a pink phone which she had bought from some weird store and put it onto a small phone table. She plugged the phone in. She also put a small notebook and a pencil to the phone table. 

_Perfect_, Sakura thought smiling as she looked at the phone table.

She went to the attic and dragged one small wooden table and two wooden chairs to outside. They would be perfect for almost anything, breakfast, lunch, meal, tea and just reading and drinking water with anyone.

Sakura could not stop smiling, she felt like she had built a home for herself, a perfect home. She even planned on building another red cabin but smaller next to the lake, it would be sauna. But then again, she planned on doing many things.

She walked back inside and began making some tea; she was expecting Kakashi to show up soon. Part of her was terrified of seeing him, she was afraid that he would say that he is happily married or getting married or something worse. The other part of her was thrilled to see him because she still loved him.

She left the teakettle to the cooker, in that way the water would stay longer hot. When Sakura was just about to check her looks from a mirror, she heard knock on her door. Sakura took a deep breath and went to open the door.

"Hi, Kakashi." Sakura smiled.

"Yo." he grinned and stepped into the cabin after Sakura had stepped from the doorway. "Cosy." he notified as he looked around.

"Mmm. I love it. Do you want some tea?" Sakura asked and walked already to the cooker, she almost knew his answer before he had said anything.

"Yeah, thanks." Kakashi grinned; Sakura could hear the grin from his voice.

"Ok. So what did you want talk about?" she asked and she hoped that she didn't sound anxious or anything.

"Oh yeah. Well… When you had left and I found the note you had addressed to me, oh thanks," he said as she gave a cup of tea for him and sat to the other side of the table," I regretted that I was late, I actually wanted to start seeing you. But you had left... And I realized that when you are separated from some person a long time, in the end you understand what the person means to you. So during those fours years when you were gone, I realized what you meant to me. And Sakura, I love you."

Sakura was silent and she just stared at Kakashi, not knowing if she had heard right.

"Um. Excuse me… What!?" Sakura asked, she felt like she was in a state between dream and reality and she didn't know anymore what was true and what was not.

"You heard right." Kakashi grinned.

"Um. Hm. Um. Uh, well. I. Oh my god." Sakura stammered and drank her tea with one gulp hoping that it was something stronger. Her mind refused to function, her heart refused to beat and her hands refused to stop sweating. She refused to believe what she had just heard. "I uh, well… Um… Hmm. I-I-I love you too?"

Kakashi could not help but start laughing; he thought that she looked so adorable in her state of confusion. He got up from the chair and walked to her, she hadn't even noticed that he wasn't on the chair anymore, he took her hand and pulled her close to him. A smile crept to his face when he felt her arms encircling him. This was what he had waited for 4 years.

* * *

Oh wow… 2308 words… I'm good… Haha. Ok, **REVIEWS ARE WELCOME!**

-danax


	3. A playful evening

**Disclaimer: You know I own nothing! **

**_I changed the summary a bit and the storyline too_… Sorry. But nothing in the first 2 chapters has changed. Here's the summary: After revealing her feelings towards Kakashi, Sakura left the village to complete an S ranked mission. Now she's back and ready to live her life but the events of her mission starts to haunt her. KakaSaku and a bit of NaruHina**

**Thanks for the awesome reviews, keep it up!

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**

Sakura felt like melting into Kakashi while she was in his arms. She got her rational thoughts and mind back, well at least partly. She was still a bit confused about everything. She wasn't even sure that she had replied to him.

"I uh. Well… I love you. I think. NO! I _do _love you without that I think –part. But this is so. Just. Um. May I see your face?" Sakura spoke her thoughts aloud.

"I'll have to think about that." he laughed.

"What?" she asked, she didn't know how to react to his reply.

"Sakura, I'm just kidding." he kept laughing.

"Oh, all right." she said quietly and felt like blushing. Silently she thanked that he couldn't see her face when she realized that she was blushing and crying silent tears at the same time. But when she felt that he was about to let her go from the embrace, she wrapped her arms more strongly around him. She wasn't ready to let go.

"Sakura?" he asked, she could almost hear the unspoken question.

"Don't let go, not just yet." she whispered and closed her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" he asked quietly.

"Because I'm so happy."

He just smiled and squeezed her a little tighter.

"I'm sorry." she said suddenly.

"Hmm? For what?"

"I wet your vest." she sighed.

"It's alright. It's just a vest." he said and pushed her a little bit away from him to see her face. He wiped a few tears from her cheek with his thumb and smiled lovingly to her.

"Can I now see your face?"

"Uh. Sure."

Sakura smiled weakly and put her fingers to his mask. She closed her eyes and slowly started pulling the mask down. When the mask wasn't covering his face anymore, she touched his cheek, nose and lips; she wanted to feel his face before seeing it.

When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a smiling face. To her he was handsome, very handsome. But his face was nothing like she had expected it to be, it was better.

"Hey handsome." she said smiling back to him.

"Well, hey beautiful."

"I'm not beautiful."

"Yes you are."

"Do you wanna have a fight about this?"

"No. I'd win anyways! So, it'd be just a waste of time." he grinned.

"Nu-uh." she grinned back.

"Fine. It's a tie then." he sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Fine." she said sulkily.

She didn't have the time to even take breath and say something before he had crushed his lips against hers. That was the moment which proved to Sakura that he really did love her, his kiss had the something in it. She felt this funny sensation in her whole body; it was like her skin was on fire. When they broke their kiss, Sakura felt many feelings at the same time, she felt loved, abandoned, happy, sad, tired, lively and most of all she felt warm.

"Sakura. Just one question, does the roof keep the rain?" he asked suddenly.

"What? Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"They promised some rain and thunder for tonight in the weather channel." he grinned.

"Oh really? I love thunder and rain!" she chirped.

"I had somehow guessed that."

"Am I that obvious?"

"No. But I remember that always when the team 7 was on a mission and there was thunder storm coming up, you got always excited to do anything outside of your tent." he laughed.

"Oh, you noticed?"

"Even a blind man would've."

"…"

"It's normal to be like that. I act the same when there's a new volume of Icha Icha Paradise published." he grinned.

"That doesn't surprise me." she giggled.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked with a sarcastic voice.

"You! You! Don't imitate me, you! You! You! Ass!" she partly yelled and partly laughed.

"What!" he laughed and picked her up from the floor. He held her from her legs as her face was against his back.

"Put me down! You make me feel dizzy!" she laughed.

"If I was you, I would start begging for mercy now." he just grinned as he carried her out of the cabin.

"MERCY!" she yelled but in vain, he kept walking towards somewhere.

"Now, Sakura, tell me. Are you afraid of water?" he asked.

"No. Why?" she asked.

"This pond of yours welcomes you home from the long long long _S-ranked _mission." he laughed and dropped her. While falling in air she grabbed his arm and took him with her to the water.

The water wasn't cold but not warm either, it was just perfect. Sakura swallowed some water as she was trying to get to the surface but Kakashi was trying to keep her underwater. He held her hips still while Sakura felt like she was dying. He did an unfamiliar hand sign like he was trying to show something to her but she didn't understand it.

_What is he trying? _she thought as she still was trying to get to the surface but his hands keep her from getting there. She did not understand his hand signs or whatever he wanted to say. She stopped her efforts to get to the surface and signed to him that she was out of air. He let her go.

When she reached the surface she had to take a few deep breaths and a few seconds just to calm her nerves. Then it hit her, it was raining. She smiled and opened her mouth; she liked the taste of the rain.

"Sakura." Kakashi said. He had come up too.

"Mmm?"

"Come." he said and extended his hand.

"Where?" she asked with a confused look, she was confused: she didn't know where he wanted to take her.

"Underwater. You should see this."

"Oh, so you were trying to show me something earlier when I tried to get up?"

"Yeah."

"Ok." she smiled and took his hand.

She took a deep breath and they dived into the water. When they were almost at the bottom of the pond they turned their bodies so that they could see the surface. She would have gasped if she could have. The water was so clear and she could see how the rain drops hit the surface, it looked so surreal.

There wasn't much air in her lungs anymore so she had to return to the surface. She swam to the edge of the pond and sat to the ground. She started shivering as Kakashi swam to her and sat next to her.

"Cold?" he asked.

"Mmm. You?"

"Yeah, a bit. Lets go inside." he grinned. He got up and gave his hand to her that she could drag herself from the ground too.

"I could make more tea. Or do you prefer warm sake?" she asked smiling when they started walking back to the cabin.

"Well. If you're asking from me, I'll say tea and for desert warm sake."

"Ok. But one thing. Did you happen to bring any other clothes than those?"

"No. But I trust you have towels."

"Yeah."

"Then I can just take my clothes off and— you aren't afraid of naked men, are you? he asked immediately after seeing the expression on her face.

"Oh no. I was just. Well. Just keep your boxers on!" she laughed.

"Dunno 'bout that."

"Kakashi-se—"

"—not the suffix, please."

"KAKASHI!"

"Yes, yes, yes. I'll leave the boxers on."

"Thank you. Now go in before I kick your wet butt!" she laughed when they had stopped in front of the door.

They went inside and Sakura went to get the towels for them while he started making the tea realizing that the old tea had leaked from an old kettle. She ran to her bedroom and quickly took the wet clothes off and changed some dry ones, sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt. She grabbed one huge white towel and ran to downstairs.

She handed the towel over to Kakashi who was standing by the stove, cooking water. He was completely drenched.

"Thank you Sakura."

"You're welcome. I can make fire into the fireplace and then I could put your clothes to somewhere near the fireplace so that they will dry faster."

"Yeah. Well. Do you happen to have any clothes for men?"

"I have one t-shirt." she said blushing.

"May I borrow it?"

"You sure?"

"If it's clean, then yes."

"A-alright." she stammered and went to get the shirt as quickly she could. Lending a shirt to Kakashi wasn't a big deal for her but the question whose the shirt actually was, was the thing which made her a bit nervous.

She took the shirt out of her closet. It was black and huge. She sighed, hoping that he wouldn't ask whose the shirt really was or really had been.

She went back to downstairs and noticed to teacups on the table and a half naked Kakashi next to the table, the sight of him made her blush. She lowered her gaze to the floor, walked to him and handed the shirt to him. She sat down on a chair and drank some of her tea.

"Tell me something about your mission." he said and sat down on a chair.

"Kakashi-se-- Kakashi. Can I tell you later, when I'm ready to talk about it?"

"Yeah, sure." he grinned.

"I think there's not gonna be a thunderstorm at this part of the village." she sighed changing the subject.

"You may be right. Or then it'll come at night."

"Oh, I completely forgot! Your wet clothes!"

"They're there." he said pointing a couch with his index finger.

"Mm. Ok." she said and got up. She walked to the fireplace and took a news paper from a table behind her and ripped a few pieces of it and put them into the fireplace. She didn't have to get any pieces of wood because she had done it before he had come. She lighted the papers in the fireplace and got up from the floor.

"Where should I put the clothes?" she thought aloud.

"Maybe if you put them on that couch which is closest to the fireplace, they might dry faster there." he said.

"Oh, what? Oh, oh. Alright."

* * *

It was way past midnight and Kakashi and Sakura were laying on a huge soft carpet which they had placed right in front of the fireplace. 

"Tell me what you love, tell me everything." he said while her head was on his chest and she was listening to his heartbeat.

"I love the smell of grass which has been just cut but who doesn't? I love being a ninja. I love this, being here with you. I love really really really small kittens. I love yellow paprika. And well, I love you of course. Ok, your turn."

"There are not many things I love but I'll tell you two of them: you and Icha Icha Paradises."

"Mmm. Lets be like this forever. You, me, this carpet and that fireplace." she sighed and closed her eyes.

"Sounds wonderful but we can't."

"Oh man, why not?"

"Because the Hokage wants to see you in the morning." he notified.

"Tsunade? Oh, it means a very early wake up for me."

"Tsunade? She retired."

"What? Who's the Hokage then?"

"You'll see it then."

"Oh my god! Is it Naruto!"

"You'll see it then."

"Kakashi! Tell me now!" she yelled and got off of him.

"No. My lips are sealed." he laughed.

"Tell me!"

"No!"

"Tell me or I'll never kiss you again!"

"That's blackmailing and we both know that you couldn't do it." he said and sat up too.

"But I want to know."

"And you will." he notified and kissed her. He leaned a bit too much on her and she lost her balance and fell on her back while they were still kissing.

* * *

**A/N: Gyah, the chapter is ready. I'm so happy. Um, so the story is gonna be A LOT longer than I expected. If you wish to stop reading now, I wont haunt you down. If you wish to continue, then that's good. REVIEW PLEASE! **

**-danax**


	4. At the park

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. 'Cept the plot of this story. **

**Sorry for the late update…**

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* * *

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Sakura had woken up some time ago. She had made some coffee and once again, she was drinking her morning coffee at the yard. She was just wearing an oversized t-shirt, panties and no slippers. She loved the feeling of wet grass under her feet. It made her smile and walk in weird circles on the grass.

A light breeze made the leaves move in the air, which made her thought about the cherry blossom tree with the pink ribbons. After the thought of the tree she began to think about her dream where she was with Kakashi. She wondered how he had known in the dream and she wondered if he knew in reality.

It felt so good to just stand there, drinking coffee and planning her future although she never lived by her plans. But she still loved planning the future because it was like living a moment in an alternative universe.

"Morning." Kakashi said and walked next to her, which made her to look at him. His uncovered face made her smile.

"Morning handsome." she said.

"So, you do this every morning?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"Drink coffee outside?" he asked and drank some of his coffee.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, I haven't been here for that long to say that I do this every morning but yes." she laughed and drank the rest of her coffee.

"What are your plans for today?"

"Um. Well, I'll go see the Hokage, whoever he or she is and then I book a hotel room for the next 2 weeks because that cabin will be repaired from everywhere and they're gonna do the pluming and electricity and kitchen and bathroom and the phone lines and the roof again so. Eh, it's gonna cost. But I'm paying extra money so that they'll finish the job earlier."

"You're booking a hotel room? You could just live at my place." he grinned.

"Yeah, and you could take advantage of me? I think I'll pass." she laughed.

"Sakura. I would never try and take an advantage of you." he said dramatically.

"Heh. Well, I was just joking and I thank you for the offer but I think it'd be better if I stayed at a hotel."

"But you'd spend the days at my apartment, right?"

"I'll have to think about that." she smiled and walked back to the cabin.

"What does that mean? Is it a 'yes' or a 'no'? But it sounds more like a 'yes' than a 'no'…" he thought aloud and followed her to the cabin.

* * *

Sakura was sitting on a chair which was placed right next to the door to the Hokage's office. She was so nervous and she was pretty sure that the time had stopped. She just wanted to know who the Hokage was. 

She almost got a heart attack when the door to the office opened but no one came out.

"Sakura, you may come in." someone said from the room.

_Ok, that doesn't sound like Naruto. Maybe he has just a sore throat or something_, she thought and got up from the chair.

She walked into the room and saw that the back of Hokage's chair was facing her. She took a deep breath and sat onto a chair which was placed in front of the desk.

Seconds passed before the Hokage turned the chair around and she realised that she was looking a senbon needle which was sticking out of the Hokage's mouth.

"Hello Sakura." Genma smirked, which made Sakura fall of her chair and Genma cracked up.

"Uh. You're the Hokage?" she asked from the floor.

"No, I am not. The Hokage just wanted to see your reaction when you see me instead of the Hokage." he kept laughing.

"Uh", she got up from the floor and sat back to the chair, "so where's the Hokage then?"

"He's right behind you." he smirked and got off the chair and walked out of the room.

She took a deep breath and turned her head around to see the Hokage. He was tall, he had blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Naruto!" she screamed and went to hug him.

"You've changed." he notified while she was still hugging him.

"That was my line!" she laughed.

"No, I'm pretty sure it was my line." he laughed too and she released him from the embrace.

"It wasn't. I'm still short, I still have green eyes and pink hair. Which equals, nothing has changed in me." she laughed and sat back to her chair when he sat to his chair.

"You look more like a woman now. And you're prettier." he laughed, which made her blush. She had never expected that Naruto would say something like that to her. Not anymore at least.

But she had to admit that Naruto was very handsome too, he had lost his baby face and his voice was deeper now.

"Well thank you, Naruto-kun." she smiled to him.

"But back to business."

"Hm? Yeah. I guess I'm here to report about the mission or something."

"You don't have to, I know what happened. And Sakura, your mission wasn't successful. Your target is very much alive." he said with a sad voice.

"He can't be alive. We killed him! I know we killed him!"

"Gatô is alive. We just found out two days ago. Someone super healer like yourself must've healed him." he said with a stern voice. **(a/n: Gatô was the guy who tried to prevent construction of the Naruto-bridge)**

"And he knows who we are, me and Hinata I mean. He's gonna send some ninjas after us." she sighed knowing that she was screwed with Hinata. Gatô would get someone to assassinate them and soon.

"I know. But they won't get into this village without a gate pass and they can only get a gate pass if I gave them one. So they won't get here."

"Naruto it's still possible that—"

"—I'll get a few ninjas watch for your back. Don't worry."

"Ok, I'll trust you but if they come for us, I trust you take 'em out with your new Jutsus and stuff?"

"I promise. They'll leave the village without their heads." he smiled.

* * *

Sakura was just walking at the shopping district of Konoha as she saw Hinata peeking into some display window. She walked silently behind her and put her hand on Hinata's shoulder, which made Hinata to jump a few meters up into the air. 

"Sakura! You shouldn't scare me like that!" Hinata yelled, which proved Sakura once again that Hinata had changed.

They had spent nights trying to make Hinata stop stammering and getting her out of her shell. Well, all the sleepless night weren't wasted.

"Sorry." Sakura squealed.

"It's alright, just don't do it again and I'll be saved from a lot of hear attacks."

"Ok, deal. So what are you looking at?" she asked and looked into the display window too.

"Oh, just that skirt." Hinata sighed. Sakura looked at the only skirt on the display window, it was gorgeous, it was white, it was quite loose, the hem reached just a few centimetres above the knee and the hem had this fairy like impression.

"It's gorgeous!"

"I know. I just, well, I don't use skirts that much and then I would have to buy new shoes for that dress and maybe a few tank tops or something and—"

"—So, let's go shopping! NOW!" Sakura yelled and stormed into the shop.

"Well, I do need a bunch of new clothes and we didn't buy much at the mission so—"

"—HINATA!"

"Okay okay, I'm coming!" she partly laughed and partly yelled.

Sakura had taken a bunch of clothes and she was carrying them in her arms and once in a while she took another bunches of clothes and put them to Hinata's arms.

"Are you sure I can afford this?" Hinata asked when Sakura had put 3 tank tops and 2 pair of low waist jeans to Hinata's arms.

"I have no idea. And it's highly unlikely that you'll buy all of those when you haven't even tried them on." she laughed.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"It happens even to the best of us." the pink haired woman giggled.

"Hah. But let's go and try some clothes, 'kay?" Hinata asked and before Sakura could answer, she had started dragging Sakura to the dress rooms.

"Gosh you've changed." Sakura said her thoughts aloud.

"I know, now you'll go that dress room and I'll go to that." Hinata said and pointed two dress rooms which were next to each other.

"Ok."

"Did you speak with Naruto-kun today?" Hinata asked suddenly after they had started changing clothes.

"Yeah, did you?"

"Yeah, well, actually yesterday."

"Are you afraid? From _his_ men?"

"I don't know. I'm trying not to think about it. But Naruto-kun said that we'd be alright."

"Yeah. And I trust him."

"Me too."

"Hey, Hinata. Have you changed already? Because I've changed and I'd love to see your clothes."

"Yep."

They came out of the dressing rooms at the same time. Hinata was wearing the skirt she had admired at the display window and she was wearing a simple mint green halterneck. Sakura was wearing the same kind of dress as Hinata except it was black and she was wearing a white tube top.

"Y-you l-look so great!" Hinata squealed.

"Hinata."

"I'm sorry. You look so great!"

"Better. You don't look bad either. I think that a certain Hokage would be _very_ happy if you wore those clothes when you were having a date with him."

"Please be quiet Sakura, someone might hear."

"I think that everyone sees how he looks at you so hearing it won't make any difference."

"Sakura!"

"Okay okay. Let's try some other clothes."

Sakura and Hinata were walking around a small park which was full of gorgeous cherry blossom trees and maple trees. It was so peaceful, a light breeze played with leaves in trees, birds were singing their songs and there weren't a lot of other people so it was quiet.

"Sakura. You should live at our guestroom for the 2 weeks." Hinata said suddenly breaking the silence.

"I don't know. It sounds great but."

"But, what? My father and sisters are gone for the month and I'm all alone there with Neji-san."

"With Neji?"

"Yes. He's boring sometimes and I really would love if you lived with me for the next 2 weeks."

"Um."

"Sakura, please!"

"Um."

"I've never asked anything from you, please just this once, come and live with me!"

"Um. Alright then, if you insist."

"I absolutely insist!"

"Ok, but I need to get some stuff from the cabin first and then I can quickly drop the things to the guestroom and then I'll go and find Kakashi."

"Ok, I'll go home and make the guestroom ready."

"I'll see you later."

"Yep. Bye!" Hinata said and turned around to walk where they had come.

Sakura watched as Hinata walked away with happy steps. It made her smile, partly her life was going very good but the other part, the dark part of her life wasn't going that good. She could still remember everything she had done at the mission, she could still hear Hinata's screams when they had tortured her, her own screams, she could almost smell the blood after they had killed many people and she knew that she would always remember those moments, the most horrible moments of her life.

"Sakura?" a voice said behind her startling her, which made her scream.

"Who the hell think you—", she said turning around but stopped her sentence right when she realised who she was yelling at, "Oh my god. Sasuke!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you or anything." he laughed and hugged her.

"It's alright! I could never stay mad at you for a long time!" she laughed.

"You're back." he said and she stopped hugging him.

"Yeah. I'm back and it feels good to be back!" she said smiling.

"I can see that. So, you've talked with Kakashi already?"

"Um, yeah, I've talked with him. Why?"

"I'll tell as soon as we're sitting on that bench." he said pointing one bench which was under a cherry blossom tree.

"I'll race you!" she laughed and before he could react, she was already sitting on the bench. Sighing he walked to the bench too.

"You've gotten better." he notified as he sat next to her.

"You haven't seen nothing yet." she smiled a wicked smile to him.

"How 'bout a match some day?"

"Maybe. Maybe. But tell me now why you asked if I had talked with Kakashi already."

"You know, you were gone for 4 years." he started.

"How can I forget?"

"And you were in an S-ranked mission. No one believed that you and Hinata would come back."

"Um. I know. There were times when even we didn't believe that we would be able to return." she sighed.

"Kakashi. He, he took it pretty hard when he realised that you might not be coming back. Heck we all took it hard."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm just saying that if you go in a mission like that again, you'll kill him." he said and got up from the bench and walked away leaving Sakura dumbfounded.

_Taking something hard? Huh. Like drinking? Or what?_

_

* * *

_**A/N: The next update will be posted thinks : at this week or at next week. Heh. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! **

**-danax **_  
_


	5. Calm before the storm

**  
Disclaimer: I wish I'd own everything but sadly I just own this plot, nothing else. **

**Thank you for the reviews! **

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
**

Kakashi had taken Sakura to a nice and quiet restaurant. Its reputation was good: the food was awesome, it wasn't very expensive and people were able to eat there without being disturbed by others, well, except the waiters and waitresses.

The pink haired woman studied Kakashi's masked face as he was sitting in front of her, on the other side of the table. He looked much happier than 4 years ago: there was something new in his eyes and in the way he looked at anything. But in the end, he was still the same Kakashi who she had fallen in love with years ago.

"Sakura, stop staring." he said without lifting his gaze from the menu.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" she said blushing and hid her face to the menu she was holding in her hands.

"What will we drink?" he asked and this time, he looked at her.

"Um. You decide." she smiled lifting her gaze from the menu and forgetting everything once more when she saw him. She even forgot the fact that she had no idea what she was going to order.

Kakashi put the menu on the table and stared back at her. He did his best not to start laughing when he realised that she hadn't even noticed that he was staring back at her.

"Sakura." he said with a low voice snapping her out of her thoughts and dreams.

"Gaa!" she started looking the menu again.

"What are you doing?" he asked smirking.

"I'm-I'm thinking what to order. There are so many choices that it's quite hard to decide." she said behind the menu.

"Uh-huh. Sakura, what if I ordered for you?"

"Hm? What? No-no-no, you don't need to. I am fully capable of ordering by myself." she smiled and peeked from above the menu.

"Sakura." he laughed knowing that she couldn't order anything in that state of mind: she was in cloud nine.

"Oh. I give up. But order something good!" she laughed and put the menu back on the table.

"Trust me. I'll order something great." he grinned and took the menu from the table once again.

"I trust you." she smiled.

"Good. Meat, fish or chicken?"

"Mm. Fish."

"Raw?"

"Not today."

"Ok." he said and put the menu back on the table.

"Well that was fast." she laughed.

Kakashi was about to say something back but he didn't have the chance because their waiter came to take their orders. Kakashi ordered their foods, white wine and he said that they would look the deserts later.

When the waiter had left them Kakashi laughed: "Sakura. That waiter couldn't get his eyes off you while I was ordering."

"What? He couldn't? Why?" she was confused because she had just been in her own little world of thoughts and cloud castles.

"Because, Sakura, you happened to look amazing." he smiled, which made her blush and lower her gaze to the empty plate in front of her.

"Thank you." she mumbled.

"Tell me something." he said quickly making her awkwardness and shyness vanish.

"Ok. I'll tell you something. My granny had pink hair." she laughed.

"I didn't mean that." he grinned knowing that she had known in the first place.

"Ask me anything."

"Whose shirt was the shirt I used after we got from the pond?"

"Um. Eh. It was. Well, it is mine, now. It has been. For 3 years. But before that…"

"Yes?"

"Neji's." she said quietly but he heard her.

"Neji's? You stole Neji's shirt?" he asked not quite understanding.

"Well. I had to wear something! Because he…" she didn't want to finish the sentence. She did not want to let Kakashi know that she tried to forget him, she had tried other guys and she had had sex with Neji, twice.

She looked at him and even though she said nothing, he knew that she was apologizing: he could see it from her jade eyes. And god it hurt him so much: he had been alone for 4 years, dreaming of her and she had been with another guy, with Neji. He could not stand the fact that she had been with some other guy than him and most of all, he could not stand the fact that he had drove her to the arms of another man. Even though it was long ago and even though she was with him at the moment, it still hurt him. It would hurt, always.

The thing he did not know was that it hurt her too.

"I'm so sorry. I was just desperate. And lonely. And I thought I could forget you. Even if for one night." she said quietly as tears came from her eyes and fell to the table.

He had no idea what to answer to her. His mind was too busy sending him images of her with another man. But when he saw a tear hitting the wooden surface of the table, he knew he had to say something.

"Sakura. I don't know what to say." he said quietly and looked into her eyes.

"I'm just really sorry." she said trying to stop crying.

"We weren't together at that time and I really thought that I had no chances with you or that I wouldn't live long. Because well, it happened at the first year of our mission and it was a miracle that we survived." she said quietly.

"I understand." he said shocking her: she never thought that he would say that.

"Um. Do you… Forgive me?" she asked quietly.

"Yes." he said, which made her cry harder, silently though.

When she was about to wipe some tears off her cheek, he grabbed her hand and just held it. The gesture was somehow shocking to Sakura, so new and so full of warm and love. Slowly but surely, her tears started to dry from her eyes but when he caressed her hand a bit, she felt like starting to cry again.

"Don't cry." he said smiling.

-------------------------------------------------------

They were walking hand in hand in the quiet park where she had been earlier at that day. Both were silent, enjoying each other's companies and drifting in thoughts, the silence was very comfortable.

Sakura watched the sky but she couldn't see any stars or the moon: it was too bright even though the clock was past 9 pm. When she lowered her gaze from the sky to the ground, she was a bench which was facing a small lake.

"Let's go sit there!" she said pointing the lonely bench. He just smiled at her and followed her to the bench.

When she sat to the bench, she brought her knees to the bench so that she was hugging them and she leaned a bit to Kakashi. He wrapped his left arm around her.

"I haven't this safe in years." she said suddenly.

"I'm glad that I can make you feel safe." he smiled.

She smiled to his answer and began to watch the lake. It was calm and light blue.

"First, our mission was to kill Gatô's son, Gao. And at that time, it was me, Hinata and Neji. We started working for Gao. The more we worked for him, the clearer it was that Gatô was still alive and he was teaching his son just to be like him." she said not knowing why she told it. It may have been the place, the moment, the scene, the lake, the company or just the feeling of safety and love she got from him, she never knew why she told him at that moment.

"But Gatô was supposed to be dead. We saw him die." he said quietly.

"Apparently, he survived. He had had some excellent medics at that time. He got new organs and almost everything in him was changed. He was even younger", she explained and had a small pause before she continued once again, "but when we managed to kill Gao, our mission changed too. Neji came back to Konoha and I and Hinata were supposed to kill Gatô. Well, we thought we had killed him and we fled because our cover was blown. But Naruto says that Gatô is alive, _again_."

"The bad guy always survives."

"Yeah. And there's always a sequel." she sighed.

"Don't worry. I won't let _him_ get you." he said as she leaned her head to his shoulder.

--------------------------------------------------------

It was morning and the pink haired kunoichi walked to the kitchen of the Hyuuga Manor. She was in a desperate need of black coffee, she could almost taste it.

Hinata was drinking tea and reading the newspaper and for Sakura's surprise, Neji was making breakfast, he was making scrambled eggs and toast or something.

"Oh, Sakura! Good morning!" Hinata smiled sweetly as she noticed her.

"Haha. Good morning." she laughed and sat next to her.

"I see you had fun last night." the white eyed girl said and tapped Sakura's back.

"It wasn't night. It was late evening! Besides I came back pretty early!"

"Well, if you think that half past 11 pm is pretty early… But you must tell me everything: I want to hear every little detail!"

"Ok. Fine but later. First I need some strong coffee." Sakura laughed and got up from the chair.

She walked next to Neji and before she could ask he already answered: "The mugs are in the kitchen cabinet just above the sink."

"Thanks Neji-san!"

"No prob." he mumbled.

She took a mug and went to the coffee maker and filled her white mug with coffee. She didn't feel like using sugar or milk in her coffee so she went back to the table next to Hinata.

"Ok, give me details!" her friend said, she was eager to hear everything.

The pink haired woman was about to start telling how her evening with Kakashi had gone but Neji sat in front of her to the other side of the table, distracting her from her thoughts. She started wondering if Neji listened if she told how the evening had gone.

"Sakura? The details?" Hinata giggled.

"Oh. How 'bout I'll tell you a bit later?" she asked and drank some of her coffee.

"Ok. But you _will_ tell me."

Still Sakura couldn't believe how much her friend had changed. Hell, it took a lot of work but the outcome was awesome. She didn't stammer around girls anymore and she could be bossy if she wanted to.

"Oh yeah, of course, absolutely." she smiled to her friend.

"Good."

"So, what are you going to do today?" Neji said suddenly.

"Well. I'm supposed to meet the Ho—, Naruto, today so I'm gonna go at some point and see him." Sakura said and drank rest of her coffee.

"Um. No plans. Maybe I'll do some training." Hinata said.

"I'll help you." he said to his cousin.

"Thank you!"

----------------------------------------------

Naruto was tapping his fingers to the wooden desk in front of him. He was waiting for Sakura to come and see him. He got up from his chair and started walking around his office. He never was good at waiting and he might never get good at it but he was more patient than 10 years ago.

He walked out of his office and he walked back in. He looked at his clock which was three to 1 pm. He walked to his window and looked out but he couldn't see any person with pink hair.

He sighed and rubbed his hands together.

"Sorry, am I late?" he heard Sakura's voice speaking from the doorway, which made him turn around to face her.

"No, you're not." he smiled.

"Ok, good. Hinata just wouldn't let me go before I told her everything about with the date I had with Kakashi yesterday. So I ended up telling her every little detail." she smiled and sat down on the chair.

"Well, it seems you and Kakashi get along pretty well." he laughed.

"Oh, yeah. So, why am I here?"

"Yes, about that. I need help."

"Help?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm planning to propose Hinata at next Saturday. And I need to learn how to dance waltz and tango before that. Sakura please help me, I'm desperate."

She was silent. She did not know what to think. Her mind was stuck in that "I'm planning to propose her" –part.

"Sakura?" he asked looking at her with questioning eyes.

"Oh, waltz, tango, yes, can do. When do we start?" she said quickly.

"As soon as possible." he grinned.

"Mm. Ok, but we're gonna need the help of Sasuke then."

"Why?"

"Because he's going to show you the steps because I can't." she laughed.

"Oh yes. Yes, exactly."

"Naruto stop fretting! It'll be alright and she's gonna say 'yes'."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yes absolutely."

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**A/N: Sorry for the late update but… Ok, I'm not going to write any lousy excuse here. School starts at Tuesday so I won't be updating as fast as I updated stories in this summer. But I'll do my best.  
**

**PLEASE REVIEW! (review if you have questions or you want something to happen or you just feel like it... anyways, just review!)  
**

**-danax**


	6. Crash, Shock, Tears

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except this plot of mine. **

**Sorry for the late update. I'm not gonna tell any lazy excuse but I can tell you that this chapter will be a bit longer than the previous chapters… (not much though)**

**Thanks for the reviews!  
**

_dreams, thoughts, flashbacks_

"talking"

----------------------------

_She had been forced to sit on a chair, she had been tied to it with chakra strings which were burning her skin and she had been hit by one of Gâto's ninjas._

_She could taste the blood from her lip. It tasted like iron. She could still feel the fist on her cheek and stomach. She could still feel the iron pipe hitting her leg which had made her cry so that everyone in the room saw it._

_She was scared of what would happen in the next few minutes. She knew that she would get stabbed with a kunai or she would have to watch Hinata being slaughtered in front of her. She hoped that Hinata would do it fast. _

_Sakura turned her attention to Hinata's eyes, they were filled with fear. The pink haired woman knew that her friend was scared of doing what she was supposed to do. But she also knew that Hinata knew that she had no other choice. _

_The kunai in Hinata's right hand was shaking. Sakura knew Hinata did not want to do it but they had agreed that their friendship would not go in the way of their mission. They were ninjas, they were supposed to work undercover missions and possibly hurt their partners occasionally to get their bosses' trust. It was the life of a ninja. _

"_What are you waiting?" some guy yelled from the other side of the room to the white eyed girl. _

_Sakura couldn't see him well because the room was quite dark: maybe it was a basement of some kind. She had no memory how she had even gotten there in the first place. _

"_Nothing." Hinata said quickly and stabbed Sakura right next to her heart. Sakura watched Hinata as she said silently: "I'm sorry."_

_The pain Sakura felt was unbearable, she felt warm blood on her chest rolling down to the floor. She was crying out for the pain, it hurt so badly. She wanted to be in **his** arms, she wanted to live after this, with **him**. Thinking about him made everything a bit worse. _

_She felt dizzy even though she was sitting. She knew that she was starting to loose a lot of blood, maybe too much. She wasn't so sure that she'd live after that._

_But she started gathering chakra to her wound, she needed to make the wound stop bleeding or she would lose her consciousness and die in the loss of blood. She knew that the people in the room were about to leave in any minute so it didn't matter if she started blocking the wound already because it would take some time. They would never know, except Hinata, she knew that Sakura was already healing herself. _

_Someone tried to run and help Sakura because she was bleeding so much but the same guy yelled: "Leave her: we don't need her anymore." _

_The next thing she noticed was that the door to the room she was in was being closed. She was alone, she was cold, she was loosing blood, she was crying and she was afraid._

_---------------------------- _

She woke up feeling pain in her chest, on the left side of her chest, her hand found its way to a small scar just on her breast. Tears started coming out of her eyes as she remembered that night, it had been one of the most horrible ones in her whole life. She moved her hand away from the wound because she did not want to think about that night at the moment.

After crying for a moment she dried her tears to her black tank top which she was using as a pyjama with her panties.

_It's in the past now. Remember that Sakura. Remember that!_ _It was just a dream_, she thought and forced herself to grin because she always felt better after grinning.

Knowing that she could not sleep anymore she looked at the clock at the right side of the bed on the nightstand, it was half past 4 am. She sighed heavily and got off from the bed.

The floor was a bit cold, which made shivers go down her spine. She took a new pair of socks from her back bag which was placed on next to the bed so she did not have any trouble finding it in the dark. She sat down on the bed and put the socks on: she did not feel like shivering while walking around the Hyuuga mansion since it had stone floors in every room.

She walked out of the guest room to the dark hallway. She knew that if she turned to right, there would be more bedrooms and some paintings on the walls but there was no point watching them in the dark. On her left would be the kitchen, dining room and a bathroom. Almost right in front of her, there would be a living room, library and a training hall.

She was thirsty so she decided to go to the kitchen since she was a bit thirsty. So she turned right and walked through the hallway to the kitchen and for her surprise the lights were on in the kitchen and Neji was sitting on a chair and he was apparently reading some scroll. As soon as he saw her, he quickly put the scroll away.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted something or anything." she said quickly.

He was silent for a moment and he was staring at her, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable. Just when she was about to say something, he said: "You didn't interrupt me."

"Oh, good." she said nervously and walked to the kitchen counter where her mug was. She could feel his gaze on her back as she filled the mug with the water from the tap. She drank the water from her mug and mentally sighed.

He was making her nervous and what confused was that she didn't know why. Things between them weren't really that awkward, they didn't speak much, they didn't do anything together and still, he was making her nervous.

She put the mug back to the kitchen counter and turned around. She was about to say something like 'Neji, you know, we never talked about _it_' or something else but then she realized that it would be stupid: he was cool, he was a genius, he was Hyuuga Neji. She would never get an answer from him. She thought that maybe things should be left like they were. She really did not have anything to lose since she technically wasn't friends with Neji and things were not that awkward or awkward at all. But it was confusing.

"You couldn't sleep?" he asked suddenly startling her.

"Oh… Yeah, something like that. You?"

"I couldn't sleep either." he said still looking at her, which made her think that maybe he was trying to make her nervous on purpose but when she failed to think of a reason for that, she dropped the thought.

"Well, I'd better go. G'night." she said and left the room before he could say anything back.

----------------------------

Sakura had been just walking around Konoha. She felt like she was being followed even though she sensed no one's presence and she saw no one who could have been following her. The feeling was burning holes in her stomach.

_Sakura, no one is following you_, she thought but being a stubborn she knew that she would not believe herself.

She stopped walking and took a deep breath which was supposed to calm her nerves but it did not have any effect on her. She looked around and everything seemed to be normal. She was at a playground, there were a lot of kids some of them where swinging and some of them climbing to trees and some just being yelled at by their parents.

The sky had a lot of dark blue clouds, which reminded her of the thunderstorm the weatherman had predicted earlier that day.

_It'll start raining soon_, she thought and wondered why the people from the playground had not already left there.

Sighing she continued her walk to the Jounin headquarters thinking about the hot coffee which would be waiting for her there and about the certain someone who might be there, hopefully at least.

Walking to the headquarters didn't take long but long enough that she was wet by the time she got there: the rain had caught her. She was drenched and aching for coffee.

She opened the door and walked straight to the coffee maker which was full of fresh coffee. She took a black mug and filled it and went to sit on a couch which was quite near the coffee maker.

_Ah, the love of my life, black coffee_, she thought happily when she had taken the first sip from the coffee. The coffee made her forget all about the fact that she was wet and it did not feel good to be in wet clothes which were like glued to her skin.

"Sakura!" Hinata yelled and ran to the couch.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked in panic while her mind went through all the possibilities what would happen after Gâto's ninjas would come after them.

"Naruto asked me out!" the white eyed girl explained in panic.

"That's good!"

"He said that he might be taking me out and we might be dancing!" Hinata was still in panic.

"Getting better, you have noting to worry about."

"I think he's gonna propose." Hinata sighed.

"Well, that's good!"

"I know. But what about my father!" she asked in panic.

"Naruto is the Hokage, your father can go to hell if—"

"—You're right. You're right. Naruto is the Hokage. I have nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. Right?"

"Right."

"And I'm gonna say—"

"—Don't tell me! I'm friends with Naruto, he might squeeze the answer from me so I don't want to know before you've said it!"

"Oh, ok."

----------------------

She was running in the pouring rain towards Kakashi's home. She was getting drenched again but she did not care. She just wanted to see him: she was drawn to him like Naruto to a bowl of ramen.

She was breathing heavily because of all the running and the excitement as she knocked on his door. She did not even care that she had to wait for half minute or maybe one whole minute.

When he opened the door she could see the shock and question written on his face 'What are you doing?'

Before he could ask his question she jumped to his neck and whispered: "I just had to see you."

He grinned a bit and wrapped his arms around her carried her into the house.

"You're wet." he laughed and closed the door with his back by leaning to it.

"It was a small price to pay." she giggled to his neck.

When he was about to let her go from the embrace, her hands got tighter around his neck and she said: "Not yet, Kakashi."

"We need to get dry clothes for you. And you're wetting me also." he said and decided to carry her to his bedroom: there would be some clothes.

He left her next to his bed as he went to get some clothes for her from his closet which was at the other side of the bed.

She looked around studying everything from the room. It had dark brown wooden floor, white walls and there was a bed, closet and a desk. She walked to the desk and smiled as she saw the picture of team 7 on it. She took the picture to her hands and examined it carefully, she had been very happy and mostly because she got to be next to Sasuke in that picture.

The picture reminded her how foolish she had been, thinking that she was in love with Sasuke, she had been only 12 years old, what could've she possible knew about love? She knew that things were perfect like they were at the moment, she was only friends with Sasuke and she was more than just friends with Kakashi. Besides, Sasuke could never make her feel safe as Kakashi did.

Her heart jumped to her throat when he had suddenly hugged her from behind. He put his jaw to her left shoulder.

"I remember that day when that picture was taken." he said.

"Me too." she sighed.

"You had been chasing Sasuke all day and you were so happy when you got him to talk a bit and then you were in cloud nine when you got to be next to him when the picture was taken." he laughed.

"Heh. Well, I'm glad that Sasuke never agreed to go out with me or anything."

"You'd better go and change your clothes." he said, let go of her and handed some clothes to her.

"Um. Where's the bathroom?" she asked and he pointed a door which was facing the doorway to the bedroom they were in.

"Thanks, I'll be right back." she grinned and went to the bathroom.

"I'll make some tea in the meantime." he said and went to downstairs.

------------------------------------

She was on the couch and in his arms: everything was perfect he had even got a blanket for them since she had been shivering a bit. Even though she was watching some really good action film with him, her eyelids just wanted to drop and stay closed.

"Do you think that it's gonna start thundering soon?" she asked.

"Hopefully." he sighed and wrapped his hands a little bit tighter around her.

"Why?"

"Because then you would just have to stay with me a little longer." he laughed. She leaned her head back so that it was on his shoulder.

"Hah. You just want to have me in the same house where you're in when the lights are out and the electricity is out and we just have to _burn_ candles all night long."

"Something like that."

"Well better start dancing some kind of a thunderstorm dance cuz I gotta go in a minute." she sighed.

"Sakura, please don't go." he said suddenly.

"I… Well… Ok then." she said quietly.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to." he said with a serious tone.

"I didn't mean that! It's just that… I don't wanna us to have sex. Not just yet." she said and she was blushing.

"You thought that was the only reason I want you to stay?" he asked in pure disbelief.

"Well no but—"

"—stupid girl!" he laughed and started tickling her.

He tickled her and she laughed 'til they heard a loud crash from outside. They looked each other for a moment in silence.

"We better go and check that out." she said suddenly.

"Yeah." he agreed and they got up from the couch.

She put her shoes on and ran outside and saw a huge tree which was torn half.

"Did a lightning do that?" she asked.

"Probably. I don't sense anyone here and no one's screaming for help so we can go back inside."

She raced Kakashi back to the house because it was raining like hell. She was laughing as she took her shoes off and then she ran to the kitchen to make some tea or coffee.

She went to sit to the kitchen counter and she waited patiently him to come to the room.

"Tea or coffee?" she asked.

"Coffee." he grinned.

"Ok. I'll make it, you'll sit to a chair and relax." she laughed and got off from the kitchen counter.

"Yes ma'am", he laughed too, "hey, what's this?"

"What is what?" she asked and turned around to see him holding a brown packet in his hands.

"This. It wasn't here before."

"Oh, maybe you got just some information letter from Naruto or something." she said and turned around and started making coffee.

"It has your name written on it." he said and put the letter to the counter.

"Oh, ok." she said and took the packet to her hands.

She shook it a bit and because it did not explode she decided that it was safe to open the packet. She found a blue velvety box from the packet but before opening it she glared at Kakashi who seemed to be as surprised as she was.

When she opened the box and saw what was in it, the box dropped to the floor and backed as much as she could: she wanted to stay away from the packet.

He watched her for a moment and he could clearly see the horror in her eyes. He took picked the velvet box from the floor and it was empty but its contents were on the floor. Two eyeballs, jade green eyes just like hers. He put the eyeballs back to the velvet box and the box to the table. He quickly washed his hands using the tap on the kitchen sink and he hugged her. There wasn't a lot he could do or say. They both knew who had sent that packet and they both knew what it meant.

He felt her hands getting tighter around him, he heard that she was crying quite silently though and he felt that she was shaking.

"Sakura, I'm here for you." he said quietly.

"I know. Thank you for that." she whispered.

------------------------------------------------

Sakura had been asleep for hours on Kakashi's bed. He in the other hand had been making sure that every window and door was locked in his house and that there were not any other packets addressed to Sakura or any ninjas. He did not want to see her so scared ever again.

He heard the ringing of the doorbell and he went to open the door and Naruto came in with a rush.

"Where is she? Is she alright?" he asked.

"She's sleeping. And scared. I guess Hinata received a packet of some kind too." Kakashi sighed and signed Naruto to sit down but Naruto was having too many emotions which prevented him from sitting down.

"She did. But no wonder that they're both scared", Naruto had a small pause and then he continued: "this could become a war."

"What?"

"I heard today that Gâto has gotten the Hidden Village of Rock to his side. They have started gathering ninjas all around and I have to say that they have a lot ninjas on their side at the moment. Some of Konoha's intelligence teams told just a few hours ago."

"Are you getting allies already to our side?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes. And I have to get some extra Jounins to make sure that Hinata and Sakura will be safe."

"They will need someone all the time."

"Yes, I know. That's why I signed you for it in the first place but Kakashi do you really think that you're enough? Sakura needs at least one more Jounin besides you."

"I know. Who do you have in mind then?"

"Sasuke. And he will be living with you and Sakura for the time being."

----------------------------------

Sakura was standing in front of the bedroom window. She could not sense anyone outside but she knew that _they_ were out there. She knew that it would get nasty in the end. She knew _them._

She heard steps coming to the bedroom so she turned around and saw Sasuke and he even had a worried look on his face.

"Hi." she said quietly trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.

"Hi, you alright?" he asked and walked to the room.

"As alright as I can be." she partly laughed.

"You're a mess." he sighed.

"You said it. I'm a mess, again. Why the hell am I always the weakest person in the group!" she asked and she seemed to be almost furious about it.

"You're not weak: you just have the worst luck in the world." Sasuke said and did something which wasn't like him, he hugged her. Well, she knew that even he had a heart and that he was able to hug people, but she never knew that she would be hugged by the aloof Uchiha. It was comforting though, to be hugged.

--------------------------------

**A/N: Hm. Do you guys wanna see a jealous Sasuke/Neji in this story? **

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**-danax**


	7. Intruder

**A/N: I'm sorry it took quite long to update!! I'll try to be A LOT faster in the future. **

* * *

Naruto watched the main street of Konoha from the window in his office. It was normal; people were busy and running from store to store, some ninjas were talking and laughing and some old man was begging for money. Nothing looked different in his village but it felt different. The enemy had invaded his Konoha. 

He turned to look at his table which was under a huge pile of papers. The papers were mostly reports which he would have to check later. He **hated** the paperwork. He wouldn't be the first Hokage who hated it and he wouldn't be the last either. There was a coffee mug on the table on top of all the stacks of paper, he took it and left the room to get some more coffee.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't see where he was going and he bumped into someone. If his coffee mug had been full of coffee, he would have spilled all the contents of the mug to the person he had bumped into.

"Gosh. I am so sorry." Naruto said as soon as he regained his thoughts.

"Naruto. It's me and it's alright." a woman laughed.

He looked up and realized that he had bumped into Hinata. First he was extremely happy to see her but then his mind started having disturbing thoughts about her coming alone to the Jounin Headquarters without her "bodyguards". He looked around and fortunately he saw Neji and Shino standing at the end of the hall talking to each other.

"Aren't you gonna say 'hi' to me?" she asked with a disappointed voice but before he could say anything, she gave him a peck and continued, "Anyways, I came here because… I want to talk about the eyes I got… There are not a lot of white eyes and my father… He's on a mission and…"

"He's been called off from the mission and he should come as soon as possible." he said quickly.

"When was he called off?" she asked with a little bit of hope in her voice.

"A little over a week before… before you received the eyes… but it doesn't mean that the eyes are his."

"I hope you're right." she sighed and the hope was gone from her.

"Hey, come on… He can protect himself and if something had happened, we would've heard it already." he notified trying to cheer her up. But when he noticed tears in her eyes, he wrapped his arms around her telling her that she would not be alone.

* * *

Sakura stepped from the guestroom in which she had spent the night. She walked to Kakashi's room hoping that he would be there. She shivered on the way there because she was only wearing an oversized t-shirt and the floor was not that warm. 

She knocked to the door of his room and waited for a reply.

"Yes, Sakura, come in." the man chuckled in the room.

She noticed that he had taken a shower since his hair was still damp. He wasn't wearing his normal Jounin uniform, he was wearing black pants and a white shirt and no mask.

She went in and sat right next to him on his bed. She didn't say anything; she just looked at the room she was in. He had a simple desk and scrolls on it, a huge bookshelf with a lot of scrolls, pictures, books and other stuff in it, a closet and the twin bed they were sitting on.

"Kakashi…" she started but did not continue, she just stared at her thighs sadly.

"Yes?"

"I… Well, can I take a hot shower?" she asked lifting her gaze from her thighs to his unmasked face.

"Yes, of course but… what were you really going to ask?"

"Uh… Nothing, really, it's not important. But, um, can I borrow some clean clothes from you?"

"Sure, sure. Just take whatever you need from the closet and you can get clean towels from the hallway closet. I'll go and make some breakfast."

"Ah, ok!" she chirped and gave a quick peck to his cheek before she got up from the bed and went to his closet.

"Want anything special for breakfast?"

"Pancakes!" she laughed.

* * *

Sasuke was already in the kitchen and reading the morning newspaper. He had always been a morning person: it was no problem for him to wake up early. 

Since the clock was past 11 am, he had already done all of his morning routines: taking a shower, brushing his teeth and getting some clothes on.

He watched his old teacher come to the kitchen and start getting some food from the kitchen cabinets and from the refrigerator.

"Do you think it's gonna be a war?" the raven haired man asked quietly.

"Honestly? It might…" the older man sighed.

"If it became a war… Sakura and Hinata, they'd be in immediate danger." Sasuke thought aloud.

"You're right." Kakashi said in a tone which told the younger man to drop the subject.

The raven haired man watched his old teacher mixing the pancake ingredients in a white bowl. He began to think of the past 4 years and how hard those years had been to everyone. It hadn't come across anyone's mind that Sakura would leave the village and go to an S-ranked mission. She had proved herself to them that she was strong and not weak anymore. But, everyone had just thought that mentally, she had stayed the same. The S-ranked mission was the final proof for the fact that she had grown up. That she was independent and capable of taking care of herself.

His thoughts were interrupted when Sakura came to the kitchen and she was humming some song.

"Kakashi! Can you flip pancakes?" she asked and sat to a chair next to Sasuke.

"No, I can't." he chuckled.

"Oh man… I want to learn how to flip pancakes!" she laughed.

"Um. I can flip… pancakes…" the raven haired man said quietly.

"WHAT?!" she yelled. She never thought Sasuke was the kind of man who'd know how to flip pancakes. She thought that he was just the Uchiha-prodigy kind of man.

"Yeah… Itachi… taught me…" he continued quietly as if he was ashamed. And, he was ashamed. Kakashi chocked and Sakura just blinked.

"He… what?" she asked.

"Yeah, well… I was 4 or something and mom asked him to teach me to flip pancakes and he taught me that."

"Oh my God." Sakura said.

"Well, anyways, if you want to, I can teach you how to flip 'em and we'd be saving Kakashi from burning those damn pancakes", Sasuke said wanting desperately to change the subject from Itachi and the pancakes to anything else.

"Okay", she said and went next to Kakashi, "we'll take it from here, you can sit and watch."

"Sure. Sweety", he whispered into her ear making her shiver and went to sit down and watch.

The raven haired man walked next to her. "Okay, take a firm grip from the handle cuz we don't want the frying pan end up flying to the floor."

"Okay", she said and followed his advice," and now?"

"Now", he said and put his hand firmly on hers and continued, "and you do this."

Kakashi watched as the younger man moved their hands and the pancake flew up high and fall down back to the frying pan. He watched how close the raven haired man was to her, how his right hand was upon hers, how his left hand was on her shoulder and how he leaned on her a bit too much.

Thoughts of his Sakura falling in love with Sasuke again ran in his mind. He knew she had gotten over him years ago, many years ago. But, he still was her first love. And, he still was way too close to her. His chest was touching her back. His jaw was almost on her shoulder.

Watching them like that made him feel uneasy so he decided to make the pancake flipping stop, "Okay, kids, I don't want you to mess up my kitchen."

Sakura and Sasuke stopped flipping pancakes and turned their gazes to their old teacher who was acting strangely.

"Okay… You do the pancakes then", she sighed and went to sit.

* * *

Naruto sat comfortably in his office chair. He was eating some ramen and lost in his thoughts as Hagane Kotetsu came into his office with a concerned look on his face. 

"Uh? Kotetsu-san? What's happened?" the Hokage asked.

"We… We caught one of **them**", Kotetsu said.

"What? When? Where is he?" Naruto asked and put his ramen bowl to his desk with a 'bang' and stood up.

"In an interrogation room."

"Which one of them?" the Hokage asked and already running towards the interrogation rooms.

"C-2!" the older man had to yell so Naruto would hear him.

He ran through the hallways as if it was a life-death situation. The truth was that the one who had been caught could wait, too. But, he was way too energetic and his nature didn't allow him to wait.

When he got closer to the interrogation rooms, he began to hear someone yelling. He didn't make out the words but he realized the voice belonged to a man.

He went in the interrogation room and looked at the man chained to a chair by chakra wire. The man had quite short brown hair and brown eyes. He reminded Naruto of Kakashi and Sasuke.

The blonde man looked around and saw a few member of his Anbu team and a few Jounins. His Anbus were already sharpening their weapons, waiting for their moment to interrogate and the Jounins were making sure the captive wouldn't get away.

"I want to see her!" the man yelled.

"Who do you want to see?" the blonde haired man asked.

"Hotaru… I want to see Hotaru." the man had stopped yelling and was speaking more calmly now, he had realized that yelling did no good.

'Hotaru? I know no Ho—! … Sakura chose Hotaru to be her name… But why does he want to see her?' Naruto thought.

"She has pink hair… and green eyes." the man continued quietly as if he was trying to paint her looks on his mind.

'Is this the man who—. No, I need to talk to Sakura first before jumping in any conclusions…'

The Hokage just looked at the man, the man who had intruded his village. He kept looking at him and said to a member of his Anbu team: "Find Sakura and bring her here."

"Ho—"

"—you're in no position to ask for **anything**", the blonde man said cutting the man off.

* * *

The breakfast was eaten in an uncomfortable silence. There was some tension between the men and Sakura didn't want to have anything to do with it. She wasn't sure what the tension was about and her female intuition told her to stay away. 

She was just eating the last piece of her pancake as an Anbu ninja 'poofed' into the room.

"Hokage wants to see you. Now", the Anbu said looking directly at the pink haired woman.

"Oh, okay, we'd better go then", she said to the other men in the room.

Sakura nodded to the Anbu and said, "We'll be there in a few minutes." The ninja nodded and with a 'poof' of smoke he was gone.

"Let's go. Kakashi, I… I'll do the dishes later", she said and got up from her chair and went to get her sandals leaving the other men alone.

* * *

Naruto waited patiently in an observation room where was a huge oneway mirror hunf in the interrogation room. He could see inside the room but no one could see him from there. He watched the man who had intruded his village. To Naruto, the man was way too calm. He looked like he didn't care that he'd be betraying his master or dead soon. 

The door to the observation room opened and his former team mates came in. He looked at Sakura who hadn't looked into the room, yet.

"Sakura. Do you know him?" he asked and looked at the man in the other room. Then he looked back at Sakura whose eyes were on all on the man, Kakashi and Sasuke looked at the man, too.

"I… Uh… Um, did he say something?" she asked quietly still looking at him.

"Only that he wants to meet Hotaru before he says anything", the Hokage said.

"I wanna go see him", she said looking sternly at her old team mate.

"I knew you would but you won't go see him alone", the blonde haired man said.

"Okay", she said and went to the door which would lead to the room where the intruder was in.

"Sakura—"

"—I know, I know", she said cutting Naruto off.

With shaky hands she opened the door the other room and went in. Naruto followed her while Kakashi and Sasuke stayed in the observation room.

"Hotaru!" the man yelled as soon as he saw her.

"Kenshin…" she said quietly trying to avoid his gaze. She took a chair for herself from the upper left corner of the room and placed it in front of him. She sat on the chair and looked to the floor.

"Is it true?! Did you betray us?" he yelled still staring at her.

"I… I'm sorry", she said.

"You're… sorry?" he asked his voice filled with disbelief and disappointment.

"Yeah. For **everything**", she said lifting her gaze from the floor to meet his.

He said nothing, he lowered his gaze to the floor and sighed. There was nothing he could do anymore.

"Naruto, can you leave me alone with him for some time?" she asked.

"Sakura—"

"—It's personal. I won't give **any** information. I just need to talk him **alone**", she said coldly cutting Naruto off again.

"Sakura—"

"I NEED JUST A FUCKING HOUR OR TWO!" she yelled.

"You'll get one hour. No more than that", he said and was about to walk out of the room when she said: "Um, Naruto, I'm sorry… Can you… Can you turn the microphones off?"

"If you're sure", he said.

"I'm sure", she answered and turned her eyes back on Kenshin who looked extremely surprised.

* * *

Kakashi who had looked the situation first between Sakura and Kenshin and then between Sakura and Naruto, he started to feel uneasy. He started to feel jealous again. He hated the feeling and he hated the images his brains were feeding him, images of **his** Sakura and Kenshin. 

Naruto came into the room and turned off the microphones and looked at his old team mates.

"She needs her privacy", he said and the other men just nodded and walked out of the room to the hallway.

Naruto came to the hallway too and looked at Kakashi. He started to worry about his old sensei.

"She's not in love with him", the blonde man said and started leaning on the wall.

"What?" the older man asked.

"Sakura. She's not in love with Kenshin", the blonde man said again.

"I know…" Kakashi sighed.

* * *

**A/N: Yay! I've updated!! Please review!!** **I'll update again in 2-3 weeks. **


	8. Choice without consequences?

**A/N: Sorry I haven't been updating much lately!! I moved away from where I lived closer to the capital of Finland and I started going to a new school and a lot has happened. But I'm back writing again, I can't stop writing! But thank you for reading this and reviewing, it means the world to me. And I'm not going to write Neji AND Sasuke jealous. It's either one. Please vote!!  
**

* * *

There was a deep and uncomfortable silence between Sakura and Kenshin

There was a deep and uncomfortable silence between Sakura and Kenshin. She could read from his face what he was thinking. He wasn't scared that he had been caught, he was just deeply sad that she wasn't the person he thought she was.

"So… You're with them", he said coldly looking straight into her eyes.

"Yeah, I am but that doesn't mean that—"

"—yes it does", he said angrily cutting her off.

"I didn't… lie about everything", she said quietly lowering her gaze to the floor. She couldn't bear to look at him anymore.

There was another few minutes long silence between them. She was crying soundlessly, her tears falling to the cold stone floor and he was lost in his thoughts.

"Why did you do it in the first place?" he asked with a glint of hope in his voice as if he hoped to hear something from her which would make it easier for him to understand or forgive.

"I told you… Back then in the park. I wasn't lying", she said quietly trying to hide the fact that she had been crying.

"And the man… How did he take your return?" he asked.

"He… He was happy", she said and he nodded.

"So, you and him, you are a couple now?"

"Yes", she said smiling a bit.

"Does he know—?"

"—not yet", she said cutting him off, "the time's not been right." She got off of her chair and started walking slowly to the door.

"Wait", he said, "there are 5 of us, including me. Hiroto, Hiroshi, Yuki, Akira. They've sent the best. I don't know from who _**he**_ got the information about you and her… I guess her name isn't Yuriko."

She turned to look at him not knowing how to feel. He had just betrayed his own master, team and village.

"They'll know it was you", she said in a shock.

"I don't care", he stated.

"They'll torture you."

"So will you."

"You'll die."

"We're all gonna die someday."

"Shit. I hate you, remember that." she said and walked to him. She freed him from the chair and the burning chakra wire.

"What? Hotaru…"

"At the end of the hallway outside, there will be a door. Go to the other room through that door and then there will be stairs, go up and you'll see the entrance door. Head to west and you'll be in a huge forest. You will have to cross our wall and there will be more ninjas on guard than usual. After that wall, you're free." she said quickly not believing what she had just done.

"I.. Hota—Sakura? I…"

"Just go."

"Thank you", he said and transformed himself into a small mosquito. She walked out of the room to Naruto as the small mosquito flew free.

* * *

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE?!" Naruto yelled on the top of his lungs at her at the first time in his life.

"I do."

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE RULES ARE AND WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO YOU?"

"I do."

They were in the interrogation room. Only Sakura, Kakashi and Naruto were there. Naruto was mad, he was never mad at her. He was mad at her stupidity and her rushed decision. She could even see that Kakashi was mad or disappointed.

"Why did you do it?" Kakashi asked before Naruto could start yelling again.

"Because, he's saved my life at least a dozen times. Because he gave me information with which we can get the rest of the intruders and because if I hadn't done it, first you would've tortured him then he would've broken free and then _**they **_would've first tortured him and then kill him", she explained calmly, though crying.

"HE GAVE YOU SOME INFORMATION?!" the blonde man started yelling again.

"Yes. I know how many there are left and because I've worked with them, I know their weak points." she said.

"AND YOU TRUST HIS INFORMATION?!"

"Yes."

* * *

Naruto had yelled at her for hours and lectured for several more hours and when he had let her go, it was already past midnight.Though it had taken very long time, Kakashi hadn't left her side. He had stayed with her and waited 'til she was free to go home.

As they were walking to Kakashi's home, both of them were in their thoughts. Sakura was thinking about her fight with Naruto, it had gotten more personal and he had suspended her from Jounin missions. She knew what she had done was wrong but she couldn't have done otherwise. A sigh escaped her lips as she lifted her gaze up to the sky and saw stars shining like they always did.

"I guess you're pretty disappointed in me", she said and looked at him. He had been looking at the sky, too but he turned his gaze on her.

"Sakura, I thought I had thought you better", he said with a disappointed.

"But… It was Kenshin… He had saved my life so many times and they would've just tortured him here and he gave the information without being tortured, isn't that something? And they would've just tortured him to death or sent him to jail or let him free after torturing and then he would've gotten caught by his own ninjas and they would've killed and—"

"—Sakura! You're thinking with your feelings! You're a ninja, you should think about what's best for the village! And you don't know if he was lying!" he said a bit angrily to her cutting her off.

"But…" she sniffled.

"Naruto was kind to let you go like this", he sighed.

"And what was that supposed to mean?" she asked looking sternly at him. She didn't want to have a fight with him but their conversation was turning into one way too fast. She was tired and hungry and the last thing she wanted to do was to fight with the man she loved.

"Usually if a shinobi does what you did, they're sent to jail", he stated without looking at her.

"So, you think I should be in jail at the moment", she almost cried knowing what kind of place it was for ninjas. It was the last place any ninja wanted to go. There were s-ranked criminals some of whom were good at intruding people's minds and fucking everything in it just for fun. It wasn't rare that a ninja got killed in jail by other prisoners.

"No, Sakura, I didn't say that. I just said that Naruto was kind to you", he said coldly to her.

"Kakashi, can you for one second, think like a non-ninja? Think of how I feel!" she snapped trying her best not to cry.

He didn't say anything for a moment. He just looked at the street in front of them. Part of him understood her, part of him was jealous because of Kenshin and the rest of him was angry at her because he thought he had taught her better than that.

"I'm sorry", she said quietly looking at his house far in the distance.

"Sakura, you don't have to apologize, not from me at least", he said. His voice wasn't so cold anymore.

"I felt like I had to."

* * *

Hinata was in the kitchen reading an ancient scroll filled with old jutsus. She had a very hard time reading it because the writing was messy and there were wholes on it, moths apparently liked old scrolls. She hadn't had much sleep the night before either, she had been thinking about the situation with her father. Even though he had not been the best father to her, she still loved him.

"Hinata, what are you doing?" Shino asked as he stood on the doorway. He looked at her, she was almost lying on the table her nose almost touching an old scroll and she was cursing every three minutes.

"I'm trying to figure out what these jutsus are about but those FUCKING bugs have eaten almost the whole scroll aaand—" she couldn't continue her sentence as she realized what she had just said. She looked at him, he didn't show any emotions. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She did it again and tried to rescue herself by saying: "I… I-I mean that um, moths have eaten the scroll and and and well, it's just not readable. I'm sorry…"

"Maybe I can help you?" he said for her surprise. He didn't seem to be angry for her choice of words. But then she remembered, he never showed his emotions.

"Ah, you don't need to. I just… I think I'm gonna put this away and hope that the moths will eat the rest of it, too", she said sighing and rolled up the scroll.

"Show me where you keep the scroll. Is there other scrolls, too?" he asked as she got off of her chair and the table.

"Ah, yes! All of our old scrolls are there. I guess there's nothing left of them anymore", she said in a sad tone and walked away from the room with a bug-man following her.

"We might still be able to save the rest of them", he said with his as-a-matter-of-fact –voice as they walked through a long hallway. She stopped in front of a huge pair of doors and slowly pushed them open, he could tell they were heavy.

The room was quite small, or it seemed so as 3 of the walls were covered with bookshelves and books, scrolls and family pictures. There was only one window, it wasn't big so it didn't create an illusion of space, it was small and did the opposite.

"How?" she asked and stopped in front of one of the walls.

"My bugs will eat the moths and spread this smell which the moths will avoid in the future", he said and looked around the books.

"Oh, okay. And how many bugs will you have to use?" she asked fearing his answer.

"A thousand. Probably. Or maybe—"

"—Okay, you do that, I'll go back to the kitchen. You come back when you're done", she said cutting him off and practically ran out of the room.

Bugs didn't freak her out but bugs which ate other bugs **did** freak her out.

When she reached the hallway to the kitchen, Neji stopped her.

"Hinata, they caught one of the intruders", he said calmly knowing that his information would make her everything but calm.

"What?" she asked, she wasn't sure if she had heard right.

"They caught one of the intruders but—"

"—But?" she cut him off.

"But, they let him go", he said.

"WHAT? WHEN?" she almost yelled and blushed afterwards realising how much voice she had used.

"Apparently Sakura let him free. And, it happened yesterday", her cousin said.

Hinata couldn't believe what he had just said. "Neji, tell me everything from the beginning!" she said and started pulling him from his hand towards the kitchen.

* * *

Sasuke was sitting on the front porch of Kakashi's house. He had been there for hours already. He had noticed some tension between his ex-sensei and Sakura and he did not want to be in the middle of any fight so he avoided both of them for the time being.

"How long have you been here?" a pink haired kunoichi asked behind him.

Since 5 am", he said looking into the distance.

"Okay… Last night, when did you get home?" she asked suddenly remembering that he had left the room at some point when Naruto was yelling at her.

"When you did, I just didn't want to interrupt your… argument."

She didn't say anything back, she just sat next to him. They were in silence for a long time. They couldn't even hear each other's breathing. As a ninja everyone had to learn how to breathe without making any sound, it was one of the crucial things to learn. It was one of the skills they could never turn off except if concentrated enough in breathing, then it could be heard.

"Sasuke", she said quietly.

"Hmm?" he looked at her.

"What exactly… happened? With Orochimaru?" she asked quietly as if it wasn't allowed to speak about it any louder.

He was silent for a long time, several minutes at least. She didn't want to push him to speak so she waited patiently. She knew that if she said something now, he wouldn't tell her or he'd get angry or both.

"I told him I was done with him, I knew what he wanted from the start but… I needed the power. You know, when you need or want something so desperately, you'll do anything to get it", he sighed.

"And he wouldn't let me go, Kabuto came storming in and it became a fight. Orochimaru couldn't do much with his hands but Kabuto… he was hard to beat. He died in one of my attacks. And Orochimaru", he paused laughing, "he had lost almost everything with his arms. It wasn't even a challenge."

"But, I heard it took over a year after that to come back… Itachi, is he still…?"

"Dead", he said shortly with a voice which told her not to ask about him anything anymore.

She didn't say anything back; she knew he wanted to be in silence. And, she knew it was a lot to Sasuke to tell as much as he told her. He wasn't the kind of person who'd share his business with others.

* * *

**A/N: thaaank you for reading!! I luff you guys so much!! Please review! ****And I'm not going to write Neji AND Sasuke jealous. It's either one. Please vote!!**


	9. Safe for now

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters. **

**A/N: It's been so long, but I'm trying to write more these days. Please review!!  
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Kakashi watched the woman sleeping on his bed. She was wearing sweat pants and one of his t-shirts, they were all wrinkled. She was lying on her stomach and her right cheek was on the pillow and her left hand was under the cheek. She looked adorable as she slept.

He smiled at her and moved a lock of her from her face to the back of her ear. She mumbled something in her sleep but didn't move. He caressed her cheek with one finger. It was cool and so smooth.

"Mmmm", she moaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up", he said smiling.

"It's okay", she said whispered and closed her eyes, "I'm so tired."

"You look tired", he said and caressed her cheek again. This time she put her hand on his and made his hand stay still on her skin.

"I really really really really love you", she said and closed her eyes. Then she shifted on the bed so that she was lying on her back and with her free and she pulled him down next to her.

"Hey, where is this coming from?" he asked as she pulled his mask down to his neck. And, she took his head band and threw it on the floor.

"I just… I've kind of missed you. We haven't had a lot of time to each other and with all of this crazy things going on, well. We just haven't had enough time", she explained.

"That's true", he said and looked at the ceiling whereas she was looking at him.

"What happened with you and Kenshin?"

Sakura fell silent hardly breathing. It was very unlike of Kakashi to ask something like that. And, she realized it must've really bothered him that she had had something going on with the intruder. She tried to think of the best way to answer to that.

"He was part of our mission, kind of. Um, I became friends with him and then somewhere along the way he fell… in love with me", she explained and paused just to listen to his breathing. She couldn't hear him breathe, which meant that everything that she said bothered him. "And, he always had my back and I had his. And then… we started going out and well, we just dated. I think he was on the verge of proposing when… when me and Hinata had to leave."

"What would've you said?"

"No, of course!"

For a long time, neither one of them said anything. He seemed to be deep in his thoughts and she was wondering what she should say. Kakashi was the love of her life and she was trying to forget him. She had believed that he didn't care for her in the way she wanted him to. She had wanted to feel again but Kenshin… he never made her feel anything as strongly as the Copy Ninja had.

"I'm sorry", she said finally and looked to the other side of the room where she couldn't see him or could he see her face.

"Sakura", he said and took her hand, "you don't have to apologize."

"But… I'm making you feel uneasy in a bad way," she said and turned her gaze back to him.

"No, I'm making myself feel uneasy. Sakura, I'm sad that he could be with you when I wanted to. He could hold you when I was here. I would've given anything to be that guy at that time of your life."

There was no need for words anymore. Had she needed to say something, she wouldn't have known how. She looked at him and he looked at her. His eyes were full of warmth and love, she didn't know how her eyes looked but she had a faint feeling that she looked like she was about to cry.

She moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. Soon she found herself in his embrace and crying. She cried all her feelings out, all those years they spent apart when they could've been together, all those lonely nights she spent trying to remember how his voice sounded like. She cried from sadness and later on from happiness.

* * *

Naruto had the best Anbus on alert searching for the four intruders. He wasn't sure if they had already seen Hinata or Sakura but he had a bad feeling. He had already set up meetings with other Kages to see which villages would assist them in a possible war.

He was in his office, sitting in his chair and looking out of the window. The sun was rising. The rays of the sun were playing the leaves of the maple trees outside his office, the whole village was colored in gold and yet, he failed to see its beauty.

As much as he loved being the Hokage and making sure everything was going just right, he missed having a normal life of a ninja. He knew that it was beautiful outside but he just couldn't see it. He missed fighting, missions and training 12 hours a day. Of course he still did those things but not as much as he used to.

He turned around with his chair and started looking at the excessive amount of paperwork on his desk. On the top of every paper and file there was a huge map of the world. Earth Country had been marked with a red X and the Wind Country with a big blue circle. Right now, the only ally he knew for sure was Suna.

He looked at the clock, it was past noon and he knew he should be leaving soon, tomorrow would be the first meeting with Raikage, after that he'd have a meeting with Mizukage. After those two meetings, he might have a meeting with Tsuchikage but that was only if they could meet on a no man's land, which he doubted.

* * *

Sakura was in kitchen, drinking coffee and doing a crossword puzzle from the morning newspaper. Sasuke was sitting at the other side of the table reading the morning newspaper.

"What's new?" she asked yawning.

"Lady Yuki has gotten married again", he answered in a bored tone.

"Bored?" she asked and drank the rest of her coffee.

"Very much so", he said and yawned, too.

"I wish I could go outside training", she sighed. He mumbled something in agreement and she decided to get some more coffee.

When she came back to the table, Sasuke stared at her and said: "That's your fifth cup of coffee today. Planning on having a heart attack?"

"My heart's just fine, but I do love coffee", she said grinning.

"I can see that", he grinned back and continued reading the newspaper.

She huffed and drank the rest of her coffee, again. She was going to feel so sick later. She went to rinse her mug and placed it on a kitchen counter. "I wanna go out", she said as she looked outside through a window in front of her.

"Yeah. But we can't", Sasuke sighed.

"This is so FRUSTRATING!" she practically screamed and then stormed out of the room.

He didn't bother to reply or even lift his gaze from the newspaper. He felt as frustrated as she did but he was better at controlling it. He didn't have the time to finish reading the article before Kakashi came back from his errands.

"Yo", the older man said from the hallway.

"Hi", Sasuke replied.

He came into the room, "Sakura upstairs?"

"Yep."

"We got a mission, Neji, Hinata and Genma will be here soon."

Now, the younger man lifted his gaze from the paper. He tried not to show any emotions but he was glad and anxious to actually do something. "What's the mission?" he asked.

"We're gonna track down the intruders and eliminate them, we've got a hint about where they might be. Sakura and Hinata know them so, it's going to be quite easy", the Copy ninja explained.

"What 'bout Naruto?"

"He's meeting the Kage's, trying to form allies."

"Alright. You'd better go and tell her before she starts breaking your furniture in something called... frustration."

* * *

Hinata looked at Sakura, the pink haired girl nodded and they entered an abandoned house. They both had felt Hiroto's and Yuki's presence somewhere nearby.

The house was wooden with dark windows. There was no light or curtains and all the furniture inside the house was broken. The floorboards looked like they'd squeak so the kunoichis had to improvise a little in order to walk inside the house without making any sound. Before landing her foot on the floor, Hinata gathered some chakra on the base of her foot which absorbed sounds. Sakura on the other hand, she walked on the ceiling.

For a split second, Hinata saw something so she soundlessly stormed out of the room after her enemy. She had already activated her Byakugan when she reached a bedroom of some sort where Yuki was.

She had met Yuki before and they had worked together some but she didn't know about her Byakugan. Hinata had kept it as a secret and she had used it only with enemies that wouldn't live to tell the story.

"Betrayer", the other woman spat.

Her opponent was specialized in taijutsu, which only made Hinata's confidence grow stronger. She wouldn't stand a chance against Hinata especially with her white eyes.

Yuki attacked with a complex series of kicks, jabs, uppercuts and punches and the dark blue haired woman avoided the attacks easily. The foreign ninja tried landing a sidekick but Hinata was already behind her hitting the stop of chakra flow in the enemy's neck. Yuki turned around rapidly and landed her elbow to the white eyed woman's face.

For a second, she lost her train of thoughts and she couldn't avoid Yuki's attacks. She was too fast, for the moment. Hinata started relying more on her eyes, avoiding more and more of the attacks and landing some.

With a quick swoop, the dark blue haired woman hit a stop on her opponent's forehead making her blind. Without the ability to see, Yuki became confused for a second too long and before she could regain her thoughts again, she was already on the ground paralyzed.

"Took you long enough", Sakura laughed from the doorway of the room.

"Huh?" Hinata was confused and turned to see her friend. She thought the fight had been fast.

"You were slow."

"Ah-ha-ha. You had some help. No one beats Hiroto as fast as you did."

"Maybe", the pink haired woman grinned, "kill her."

"Sure", Hinata sighed sadly. She hated killing people even if for self defense but she knew she had to do it. She walked to Yuki's body and hit a few points in her chest, making her heart stop beating. And with that, her eyesight became normal.

"Let's go, two to go!"

"You seem awfully cheery."

"Yeah, I get to be out of the house and after this, I won't need permission or an escort to leave the house."

The third location was a dead end. It was a clearing outside the center of the village but there were no traces of anything; not a camp, not the "after-feeling-of-a-presence" nor their targets.

"Damn", Sakura sighed and looked at Kakashi.

"I second that", Neji said.

"Send your dogs", the pink haired woman said to the Copy Ninja.

"Sure", the gray haired man answered and took a scroll of his pocket. He began summoning Pakkun.

"But how will he be able to track them if we don't have their scent?" Hinata asked.

"Ah… Kakashi taught Pakkun to track without the scent based on the scents he already knows. And since we are inside this village, he basically knows how everyone smells. It's um, I don't really get it, it's like in a country people have same kinds of genes and it's the same with scents. Though… Kind of different. I think. Kakashi?" Sakura tried to explain, but failed. She looked at her love hoping he'd help her out explaining.

"Something like that", the gray haired man chuckled.

Pakkun appeared in front of Kakashi with a poof. "Yo, I need help. We've got two intruders in town from Earth Country. I believe the town was near Iwa. And they might've been here before but… we don't know." the Copy Ninja explained.

The dog walked around the clearing for a moment or two and clearly. Discovering something, he sniffed one area of the ground intensely and then he sniffed the air.

"I'll get right on it", the dog said and walked to Sakura, "still using the same shampoo."

Sakura yelled something incoherently and slammed the ground with her fist, making it crack down for 20 yards. The dog had already disappeared into the town.

"I HATE THAT DOG!" the woman kept on yelling.

"Calm down. He just likes to see you angry", Genma laughed and shifted the senbon needle in his mouth.

"…bet Kakashi taught him that…." she muttered to herself.

"In the meantime, we just have to wait. I'd give it 20 minutes. Who's hungry?" Kakashi asked.

_A couple of hours later…_

"Should we leave someone to interrogate?" Sakura asked. She was bent on the ground next to the last intruder, Akira. The intruder was unconscious, lying on the ground.

"So you could let him free, again?" Genma chuckled.

"No", Kakashi sighed, "we have all the information we need and he won't cross over."

"Alright", she said. She made a simple jutsu and placed her index finger on his forehead. First, his brain would stop functioning and in a few seconds, all the other organs would follow.

"Freedom", Hinata sighed from a yard or two away.

"Yeah. I wonder what they have done to my cottage", the pink haired kunoichi thought aloud.

"I guess I'll be going", Genma said and winked, "I might see you later in the bar." And with that he left with a poof of smoke.

Neji looked at Hinata and said, "I'm going to see if there's any information about… Hiashi-sama."

The dark blue haired woman looked at the sky as if she already knew the answer. Then slowly, she turned her gaze to her cousin and nodded. She swirled a lock of her hair with her index finger and walked to him. "I'll go with you", she said to him and looked at Sakura, "call if you need anything."

"Yeah", she replied but they had left already, "I guess you'll be going now, too."

"Where?" Kakashi asked.

"Dunno."

"Sakura", he had his teacher-tone again, "don't assume."

"Anywho, I'm gonna go check the cottage", she sighed and stood up from the ground.

"Need company?" he asked

"Sure", she smiled and started walking to west. They'd have to go through a small forest but she didn't mind, she liked walking in the forest.

The walk was quite short but it seemed to continue forever, in a good way. She enjoyed every second of it, the smell of the forest, the view, Kakashi's presence and the most of all she loved the silence the forest bathed in. She couldn't hear anything, not even her own thoughts.

It had rained a couple of days ago so the ground wasn't too dry, even if a non-ninja walked there, there wouldn't have been a sound. The forest was flourishing. She felt as if the forest was giving some of its energy to her.

* * *

It was past 8 pm and Sakura was making some tea in her cottage. Kakashi was sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace which was lit and he was reading as usual.

She loved his presence, they didn't need to talk always and every time she had something on her mind, she could talk to him about anything. There were no idle expectations about their relationship; it flowed as it went on.

"Tee will be ready in a sec", she said as she was taking the cups from the cupboard.

"Ok", he mumbled without looking at her. She figured it was an important… scene… he was reading.

Soon, she came to sit on the carpet next to him with the full teacups. She placed one cup next to him and hold the other on her hands. She watched him closing his book and placing it back to his breast pocket. Without blinking, she watched as he took his forehead plate off and lowered his mask to his neck revealing his whole face.

"Why do you keep on wearing that?" she asked and took a sip from her tea.

"Out of habit, I guess", he said and took the cup from the floor. He looked at the empty spot between them and then at her. She didn't need to be "told" twice to move closer. So, she snuggled closer and gave him a light peck on his cheek.

"Tomorrow, I should take your chainsaw and start cutting the branches in the yard. I want to see what are the trees and bushes hiding", he thought aloud.

"Dead bodies maybe", she laughed, "hey…"

"Huh?"

"Why can't I use the chainsaw?" she pouted, "I bought it for me, so I wanna use it."

"That's a men's toy. Maybe I'll leave a… small shrubbery for you", he grinned and got punched in the ribs.

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**A/N: I hope you liked it. _So, please review and I'd appreciate some constructive criticism._**

**-danax**


	10. Changes

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters.**

**A/N: A new update!! Read, be happy and review!! **

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Branches, twigs and leaves fell from the trees in Sakura's garden as Kakashi was playing with the chainsaw. He was clearing up the garden so they'd see what it hid.

"Can I please use the chainsaw now?" she yelled trying to make him hear her.

There was no response, so he didn't hear her or he acted as if he didn't. Though, he was wearing green hearing protectors and the chainsaw made an awfully loud noise. But just in case, he was pretending not to hear her, she decided to yell: "If I can't use the chainsaw, you won't be getting any honey tonight!"

Kakashi stop dead in his tracks for a moment and looked at the bushes and trees in front of him. After a few seconds, he kept on destroying the unwanted flora and scaring the fauna away.

Soon, it started to look like there was more to the garden than she had known. The outgrown part of the garden really did hide something. There were still too many plants and her tall lover blocking her view to see anything but glimpses of the rest of her garden.

The Copy Ninja switched the chainsaw off and turned around to face her. He placed the chainsaw on the ground and took his hearing protectors off.

She was ready to shove him into a shrubbery and go see the rest of the garden. But he placed his hands on her shoulders: "Sakura, wait."

"First, I don't get to use MY chainsaw. And now, you're making me WAIT to see MY garden!" she partly yelled but partly laughed at the same time.

"Yes, wait", he said in a deep tone, "see, I don't want you to have a heart attack the moment you go there. It's not… well, it seems like… well… Go." He moved from her way and she sprinted there.

She was amazed by the view. The ground lowered for a few inch and there were all kinds of flowers with breathtaking colors. There were three apples trees which were blooming with white and light pink flowers. There was one cherry blossom tree but it looked like it wouldn't last the winter. The trees were circling the area with the flowers. The place was like from a fairytale like Snow White would run any moment there with the dwarfs and forest animals to the middle of the garden and sing to them.

There was a certain kind of magic in the hidden garden and she realized she was fiercely in love with it.

She walked to the middle of the garden trying not to step on any flowers but because the ground was blooming, it was impossible. She found a small patch where there weren't that many flowers and she lied down there looking at the sky.

"Kakashi, come here. It's amazing", she sighed and inhaled deeply. And, he came to her and lied next to her down on the ground.

"I knew there was something here but I never imagined… it would be this. It's like… These flowers, they've been growing without any help from humans and it's… I always thought to have a place like this, you'd need a human's touch. But… Wow."

"It's all pure", he said, "Made by Mother Nature."

"Yeah."

* * *

Naruto was in his hotel room sitting on the bed. He felt paralyzed but he was far from it. He feared everything he had ever worked for was coming to an end in the name of war. He threw a glass of water he had been holding to a wall, it shattered and all the pieces fell on the small drawer. He watched as the water trickled on the wall.

He closed his eyes and squeezed the edge of the bed with his fingers and with almost all of his strength. He felt as if he had failed the whole village. He knew whatever happened, Konoha would stand tall even if it meant rising from the ashes but he wondered if he still had the people's trust.

He loved his village too much to lose it.

He cellphone started ringing next to him on the bed. He inhaled deeply and picked it up: "Yeah?"

It was Genma, "Naruto, how did it go?"

"Stone Village has gathered up allies, new ninjas and S-ranked criminals. It'll be war", he answered.

"Konoha's allies?"

"Sand and Clouds are on our side", Naruto said and took a moment to inhale, "Mist is on Stone's side… Which means—"

"—we'll be attacked on two sides", the older man finished the sentence.

"And, Tsuchikage told me to expect a war, soon."

"That's polite", Genma snarled.

"I'll be back tomorrow and Gaara will come to Konoha and we'll strategize with some ninjas and tomorrow night, we'll have a grand meeting. Tell the head of ninja academy to start teaching mostly defense, hiding and escaping."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Naruto hung up and placed the cellphone back on the bed. Genma was his informal second in charge if anything happened. When he had started as Hokage, Tsunade had made the older man guide him in everything. Since that day, the brown haired man had had Naruto's back in every situation.

He knew the ninjas would fight 'til death for the honor of the village. He'd be among them.

Sasuke was leaping from branch to branch and occasionally on roof tops. He was furious and he needed to see one of his best friends. When he reached Kakashi's house, he just decided to storm in and confront her.

Neither one of them was in the kitchen. But he did feel their presences. He walked through the living room and it was empty from humans. Then he realized they were upstairs. He walked to Kakashi's bedroom.

"Sakura!" he practically yelled and she replied with a scream. He wondered why she was screaming and realized she was half naked (at least) and in bed with Kakashi. "Oh, shit", he said quickly and walked out of the room and all the way outside. He sat on the porch and cursed to himself.

They were or had been having sex and he had interrupted it. The moment would haunt him forever. He really didn't want to know anything about Sakura's sex life and already, he knew more than her lovers. Or lover. But even though he had walked into something terribly awkward, he was still furious at her and maybe angrier than before.

He felt her presence getting nearer.

"Um…" she said from behind him.

He turned to look at her, she was blushing or was she just flushed from…? "Sorry", he said quickly.

"Uh, yea, it's ok. So…" She said and sat next to him. She brought her knees to her chest and looked into the distance. She was wearing a white t shirt and black shorts but he could still see her half naked in his mind.

"You and Neji?" he whispered his eyes were full of anger. She turned to look at him and they stared at each other for very long.

"Um. Yeah, years ago. It was a… one time thing. Never happening again."

"Does he know?!" he practically yelled.

"Yeah, Kakashi knows. And why am I explaining this to you?" she asked and she was yelling.

He fell silent and looked away. "It would be wrong if you were with him and he didn't know", he said finally but still refused to look at her.

And she laughed: "Sasuke, I know you two are close but you don't need to shield him from my past."

He didn't reply to her, he vanished into air with a poof of smoke. She looked at the spot that he had occupied seconds ago. '_What was that?'_ she thought. She didn't understand her friend at all.

But then she felt Kakashi's hands on her shoulders and she felt so warm again. He sat behind her and wrapped his hands around her and she leaned to his chest.

"That was…" she started saying but didn't find the correct words to describe it.

"Awkward", he finished her sentence.

"Yeah. But Sasuke, he's acting weird", she said after a long pause.

"They way I see it, it's hard for him. Well, hard for any guy to see their female best friend starts a relationship with some guy."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because then you start questioning the guy and you can't tell her that he might not be all that… great."

"Been there?" she asked.

"Yeah. Rin and Obito. I was happy for them but…"

"But you didn't think that Obito was good enough for her or something?" she asked and turned to look at the man sitting behind her.

"Well, I knew he was but. It's hard to explain."

"Oh, okay", she said and turned to look at the small yard she had been facing. "But… he was mad at me", she continued, "about Neji."

"Oh."

"Yeah", she sighed, "it's getting cold. Let's go inside." She stood up and before she had the chance to turn around, he was already carrying her inside. And he locked the door on the way in.

* * *

Hungry and tired for having only three hours of sleep, Naruto walked slowly to the gates of his beloved village. He was home, at last. He saw a familiar figure at the gates and walked faster to him.

"Gaara!" he said and went to hug him. The red haired man wasn't really a hugging type of a person but since Naruto was, he never resisted. They saw each other somewhat as brothers.

"Naruto. You look tired", the man said and smiled a little.

"Yeah. Let's go eat something and talk business", the blond man said as they passed the gates.

"How did it go with the Tsuchikage?"

"Well, he told me to go to hell", Naruto sighed as they started walking to Ichiraku's ramen bar. He hated the fact that people though he was incompetent because of his young age. Usually Kages were old and full of knowledge but he was young and full of determination. Sometimes, people failed to understand that a young person could be just as capable as an older person.

"Hmm. He tried to get Suna on his side", Gaara said thoughtfully.

"How did that go?"

"Told him to go hell", the red haired man said grinning. Naruto laughed at that.

After becoming somewhat brothers, the two men had started acting like the other one. Naruto had become less loud and he thought more about the consequences of his actions. And, Gaara had started opening up and talking more than before.

"He said to expect a war within months. Maybe even weeks. We have to start preparing right away", the blue eyed man said as they reached the restaurant. But before Gaara could answer, he continued: "But first, we eat."

***

They were in Naruto's office, there were maps all over the desk and walls and they were in the middle of planning the defense of the two villages.

"We have the Raikage's side on the war", Naruto said thoughtfully, "he's sending me a few of his ninjas to help strategizing this. They'll be here tomorrow at noon."

"We'll be attacked from west and east. That's… bad."

"But we can try block the communication and everything between Mist and Rock", the blue eyed man said and looked at the biggest map on his desk and drew a few blue lines to divide the map in three parts. In the west was Iwa (hidden village in rocks), middle of everything was Konoha, Suna and Kumo (hidden village in the clouds) and in the east there was Kiri (hidden village in mist).

"If Suna attacks first to Mist, we'll have the element of surprise. And you concentrate on defense and be prepared and as Iwa attacks—"

"—did someone say strategize a war?" Shikamaru said from the doorway cutting off Gaara's sentence.

* * *

Every ninja from the rank Chuunin and above were at the Jounin HQ. All eyes were on Naruto and Gaara who were standing in front of everybody.

Sakura was holding Kakashi's hand. She was scared of war but who wasn't?

"It's going to be ok", he whispered quietly to her ear. She didn't know if he believed in the words he had said but she tried to.

"Attention!" Naruto said loudly and everyone fell silent, "There'll be a war against Iwagakure and Kirigakure. Kumogakure and Sunakagure are on our side. Tomorrow, we'll start preparing for this. We're adding up the defense. No one is allowed to inside the gates of this village without the new gate pass. You know in which unit you are in and tomorrow, every unit will meet at 10 am. The leader of your unit will have info about the situation."

She looked at her lover. She was afraid and feeling guilty. If she and Hinata hadn't been exposed, they would not be in a right now. The thoughts of losing the man beside her in a war crept into her mind. With every ounce of strength she had, she fought away the need to cry.

She knew him. He loved his country and there was a big possibility he'd try to do some heroic and… die.

'_No!'_ she screamed in her thoughts. Then, she felt him squeeze her hand.

"Don't think ahead of things", he said in a very low voice as if he had read her thoughts.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so, Kakashi's and Sakura's first time, I'll write that later in as a flashback. But, please, review and tell me what was good and what wasn't that good about this chapter/story. Thanks for reading this! You have no idea how much it means to me to have someone reading this. The next chapter... well, I'll try to update in a month. I have to update Lost in Emotions and Pink Blossom before this one. **

**Please review!!**

**-danax  
**

* * *


	11. Apocalyptic

**Disclaimer: I don't Naruto or its characters.**

**A/N: Sorry for the late update. I was and mostly am working on the second last chapter of pink blossom but it's difficult. Anywho, here is this! Enjoy and review!!**

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* * *

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Sakura was sitting on the edge of a bathtub, her feet were in the water on each side of the ninja currently occupying the bathtub. She was massaging his shoulders and neck. His muscles were tense and he was on the verge of falling asleep. Whenever she found a tense spot in his shoulders, she'd use a little relaxing chakra and circlish moves to ease the strain.

"Tense", she said quietly. She moved her hands behind his ears and he leaned his head forward.

"Yeah", he agreed groggily.

They hadn't spoken a lot after the meeting in the Jounin headquarters. She was afraid she would sound stupid if she spoke her fears aloud. And, she knew he was just worrying. For the long time they had known each other, she had learned that if he was quieter than usual, he was just worrying (or reading).

"Can I wash your hair?" she asked and retrieved her hands from his head. She placed them on the thighs and stretched her neck.

"Sure."

She took the shower handle and opened the tap. She let her fingers enjoy the feel of the warm water hitting her hands before she started watering his hair. "Is it too hot?" she asked quickly.

"No. Is perfect."

Rinsing his hair and applying the shampoo, she let her own thoughts roam in her mind. She thought about the duties she was supposed to do during the next weeks. She'd be the head of the hospital in Konoha where they'd bring the most injured ninjas from nearby. Shizune could've be the one to be the head of the hospital but Naruto had decided that the black haired woman should be on field. Sakura found herself wishing she could be on field, that way she could make sure if the Copy ninja got injured, he'd be healed in no time. She'd see him more that way. She'd felt safer.

She rinsed the shampoo from his hair and put the shower handle away. She leaned close to his hear and whispered: "I'm gonna go and see if I could fix something to eat."

"Yeah", he mumbled as she got off of the bathtub. She took a towel from the hanger on the wall and dried her legs and hands.

The house was old so every step she took on the way to downstairs, the wooden floor made squeaky sounds. But she enjoyed the feel of wood under her feet and something about the sounds made her feel nostalgic. Reminded her of the summer days she'd spent in her grandmother's cottage.

Stepping into the kitchen, she wondered when she could spend days of leisure in the cottage again and if she ever had the time to work in the garden. Sakura tried her best to push those thoughts away but she knew they'd haunt her as long as she'd be living those days or she'd die.

* * *

Hinata was trying her best not to panic. Naruto had decided that this was the night they'd go out because she'd leave tomorrow and they weren't sure when they could see each other again. She thought the night should be perfect, he needed to remember as something perfect or nearly and that caused a lot of pressure on her.

She had looked herself from the mirror several times and each time, she had looked weirder and weirder 'til the point she was almost convinced it wasn't her own imagine. She had decided to stay away from the mirrors and she had settled to walk to the kitchen and along the hallway back to her own room and to kitchen again.

She had just walked to the kitchen and she was about to turn around as she heard the front door open. She sensed Neji's presence and walked to the hallway where her cousin was.

He was bent down and taking off his shoes. He glanced at her. "Nervous?" he asked laughing.

"How did you know?" she wondered.

"Because I know you. And your skin is paler", he notified and stood up.

"But. But Naruto knows me. And he'll see I'm in a freakin' panic. Oh no", she said and she heard her voice quiver. Hastily, she turned around and stormed back into her bedroom. She walked to her mirror and looked at herself. She was paler and she did look nervous, very much so.

"Oh no", she said again and tried to relax.

"He'll think it's adorable", he said from the doorway to her bedroom. He was leaning to the wall and smirking at her.

She turned around to face him.

"I've heard him say it before. So, don't worry", Neji said smiling and walked to her. He hugged her shortly and when they parted, he took a few steps backwards.

"You sure?" she asked. She wasn't sure if he was just saying that to make her feel better or if he really meant it. Whichever it was, she started feel better; less panicky.

"Yes. Now go, he's outside."

***

She was fidgeting on her chair. She felt as if the whole restaurant was staring her, she knew that Naruto was staring at her and she felt like a 12-year-old scared Hinata again. That was a feeling she hated the most in the world. Well, one of them at least.

He was sitting at the other side of the table, smiling and staring at her. She didn't understand how a person could make her feel warm and nervous at the same time. She smiled a little hoping he'd start talking, she wasn't sure she was able to talk anymore.

Her prays were answered and he started talking: "I know the timing is bad. But I needed to spend some time with you before… before tomorrow."

She smiled a little and he put his hand on her on the table. His hand was warm and as soft as a ninja's hand could ever be. "No", she started and he looked at her with confused eyes. He was about to take hand off her but she continued: "The timing isn't so bad. I know that tomorrow, when we're fighting for this village and everything seems bad, I'll have at least one really… really amazing memory to hold on to."

For a moment he just stared at her with his wide blue eyes but soon he smiled widely and squeezed her hand. "Exactly. Something to hold on to."

She nodded smiling and took a sip from her red wine. Even though everything was on an uncertain basis, she still hoped he'd propose to her. Thinking about it more carefully, she couldn't even remember what had made her think he'd propose her in the first place. But, she knew that she'd happy even if there was no future for them as long as she'd know he's hers. _But is he?_, she thought but her thinking was interrupted the Hokage in front of her. He stood up from his chair never taking his hand of her hand, he led her to the dance floor and gently placed his hands on her hips.

"I said there'd be some dancing", he whispered in her ear. They swayed with the music and whenever the beat sped up, he'd spin her around and she'd laugh. After the second time spinning her, he pulled her close and whispered: "Be mine."

She was about to ask what he meant but he was already knelt down on the floor on one knee. Tears started filling her eyes but she blinked them away, she needed to see, hear, feel and be in the moment.

"Would you care to be mine… forever?" he asked as he had taken a small velvety box from his pocket. She couldn't say anything but she only nodded her head fiercely. He smiled at her and slid the ring to her finger. He stood up and gave her a gentle but long kiss.

* * *

The village felt empty. Kakashi had left a day ago with most of her friends. She wished she could fight alongside with her friends, that way he'd be near her and she'd feel she was doing more to protect the village.

"Empty", a familiar voice said beside her. She looked to her left to see Neji walking beside her.

"Yeah. Why are you still here?" she asked.

"In charge of the team who'll make sure no one gets into the village", he notified and she nodded. Abruptly, he stopped walking and she followed his example. "Some of us are going to the bar later tonight. Care to join us?" he asked.

"Sure", she answered quickly, "it'll be nice to see who's still here."

"Yes. I have to go to the HQ but we'll see later", he said and vanished away.

She was happy that he had told her about the bar night. If he hadn't told her, she most likely would've just moped in Kakashi's house the whole night. Moping the evening and night didn't feel right, which would've made her even sadder. The fact that he was still in the village made her feel less… apocalyptic.

Reaching the hospital, she decided first to go to her new office and see if there was any paperwork needed to be done. She hated paperwork but she acknowledged its importance and the fact that it took her mind off of other things.

She opened the window in the room and let the fresh air fill the room. She went to sit by her desk. She put her elbows on the desk and rested her head on her hands covering her eyes. Before she had the time to close her eyes, someone knocked on her door.

"Come in", she said. She leaned back on the chair as a nurse came into the room.

"Miss Haruno", the woman started, "we've got a patient. It's bad. He's lost a lot of blood and…"

"And?" Sakura asked as she got off from the chair and walked to the nurse.

"His eyes have been… taken", the nurse said as they started walking hastily to one of the operating rooms. "He's a Hyuga", the woman stated.

"Oh no, no, no, no", the pink haired woman said, "what's the room? Have you informed the other Hyugas already?"

"Yes, we have. The room's 103", the nurse answered and Sakura was already running to the stairs to get to the man as soon as possible.

There had been no word from the head of the Hyuga clan; Hyuga Hiashi, in weeks. They hadn't been able to identify whose eyes Hinata had gotten. She was afraid that it was too late, his wounds had infected too badly or he was too traumatized to be normal again.

She opened the door the operating room and saw Hinata's father on the bed. There were two medics trying to heal the infection in his eye sockets. His face above his nose was red, yellow and brown. She realized there wasn't much time. "What's the situation?" she asked as she hurried to the other medics.

"Both of his eye sockets are badly infected and we're trying to remove the harmful bacteria and viruses from the wound but it's—"

"—let me", she cut the medics sentence and immediately, started concentrating chakra on her hands. She was working on Hiashi's right eye socket and the two other medical ninjas were healing the left eye socket.

"How did he get here?" she asked.

"He walked to the edge of the town and Iruka-san brought him here. He fainted right after reaching the town", the other male medic explained.

She found the "heart" of the infection and concentrated her chakra to that spot. She was dissolving the "heart" in a way but at the same time her chakra was alluring the Hyuga's body's own white cells to destroy the bacteria in the wound.

"I think he might survive", she said as she started healing the veins and skin.

"Yes. Thank God they didn't send you to the field with the others."

Naruto's decision to make her stay in the village started making sense a bit to her. He had thought that she would do great in saving the ninjas that other medics thought as already dead people.

"He'll need lots of fluids, antibiotics and some company to keep him calm when he wakes up. We don't know how much he remembers", the told to the men and they nodded. "I'll go and tell the family that they can come and see him."

***

Hinata took slow steps toward her father's hospital bed. He seemed to be asleep and his breathing was steady. But he had always breathed steadily. She felt like crying but she knew he wouldn't appreciate it and even though he couldn't see, he was perceptive and could hear the tears from her voice.

"Father", she said quietly. There was no answer and she sat on the chair next to the bed. She tried her best not to look at his face. Even though he was healing fast, it was still something that would make her lose her appetite for a year or a decade.

"Hinata", he whispered.

"You're awake", she said smiling but realized he couldn't see her smile.

"Yes, for now. Hanabi?"

"She's outside. I thought I'd come here first to check you were feeling strong enough", Hinata explained.

"Later. I need to rest", he said.

She sighed and left the room. She wondered when was the good time to tell him that she was engaged and that there was a war going on. And, that the war had begun because she and Sakura had failed their missions.

Her little sister looked at her with widened eyes, "how is he?"

"He's fine. Just tired. I think you'll see him tomorrow", Hinata said, "let's go home."

* * *

Naruto was in big tent where the teams came to eat and where all the planning happened. He was reading an old scroll which was full of ancient jutsus he might find useful in the battles he'd soon engage in. He saw from the corner of his eye that Kamizuki Izumo had entered the tent and was hurrying toward him.

"We've got a situation", Izumo stated to Naruto, "there's a ninja who says he wants to help. He has gear of a hidden village of Rock but he says he's not with them anymore and that he has some information for us. And he says he knows Sakura."

"Kenshin", the blond ninja sighed, "take me to him."

The older ninja led him out of the tent and into a clearing next to their base camp. Sasuke and Kakashi were already with their former hostage. Kenshin was on his knees on the ground and the Copy ninja was holding a kunai on the back of his neck. His hands were tied behind his back.

Kakashi put the kunai back to his kunai holster and Kenshin lifted his head and stared at Naruto. But he didn't move from the ground.

"They want Hotaru –Sakura and the white eyed girl", the ninja on the ground said.

"Why?" the blond ninja asked and took step forward the ninja. He wanted to see if there was any hint of deceit in his eyes.

"They think the women know too much. I don't know how much they know but enough for Gâo to start a war against you."

Naruto looked at Kakashi who seemed to be deep in his thoughts and he looked at Sasuke who seemed to be more than ready to beat the crap out of the ninja.

"We're in war already. And Konoha won't hand over any of its ninjas", the Hokage said matter-of-factly.

"Their first priority is those two women. They'll find them and burn them. If they can't find them, they'll do something worse. Kidnap, torture and kill 'til you hand them over or 'til all of them are defeated."

"What was their mission about?" Kakashi asked looking at Naruto, "What was it really about? What kind of information do Sakura and Hinata have that they'd start a war to keep them quiet?"

Naruto breathed in deeply and lowered his gaze on the ground. He wished Tsunade had never sent those women to that mission. He would've never. "Their objective was to investigate Gâo and take him down if that was a possibility. But as time went by, they found out it was more complex than that. Gâo was heavily involved with something like the jinchuriki except… different."

"Different?" Sasuke asked.

"Gâo wanted to become invincible. He was trying to figure out if there was any chance that there were more demons and if a ninja could be a host for more than one demon at a time", Kenshin said and all eyes were fixed on him. "He succeeded at least partly. I know he found demons but that's all I know. I don't know if there's a demon sealed inside of him or more or if at all. All I know is that he found what he was looking for."

* * *

**A/N: I'm very pleased with this chapter. I like the new twist in the plot. Please review and give me some constructive criticism!! **

**I'll update a.s.a.p. -danax  
**


	12. Longing

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters.**

**A new chapter! Yay! Thank you for everyone who has supported me, you inspire me!! **

* * *

"The sight is amazing", Ino stated and Sakura could hear the smile in her voice. Hinata laughed aloud little and the pink haired woman peeked her other eye open. The roof of the cottage looked perfectly intact and able to keep the rain away. Yes, the sight was amazing.

"Look at those muscles. Don't just want to jump at that?" the blond woman stuffed with hormones asked. Sakura opened her eyes again and looked at the men on the roof of her cottage. They weren't wearing shirts and yes, they had muscles and for civilians, they did look very… hot. The men were fixing the roof and some of them were doing the electric work inside the cottage. The women outside were lying on the grass sunbathing, well, Sakura and Hinata were sunbathing but Ino was checking out the "view".

"I'm so happy you two are still in the village", the pink haired ninja said smiling and closed her eyes again. She loved the warmth she felt on her skin.

"I'm leaving in a few days", Ino said in a sad tone. Sakura and Hinata turned to look at her. "Yeah, I'll be near the Wave Country. They've started preparations for war."

Sakura started to feel like she wasn't doing enough for her village. But she also knew that the key was to keep her and Hinata away from the battles. But it felt unfair that ninjas were risking their lives to keep her and Hinata safe. They could easily end the war by giving themselves in. She caught a glance from the dark haired woman and saw that she was also having the same kind of thoughts. She shut her eyes and tried to push those thoughts away. She wasn't in the position to go and end the war when the Hokage had told her not to do that.

_FLASHBACK_

_Sakura was brought to a small room and she saw a figure lying on a small table. He was drenched in blood and drops of it were falling on the floor forming puddles. A wave of fear washed over her but she pushed the feeling in the back of her mind. Even though the man on the table wasn't conscious, she could tell he was in pain. When a person sleeps, his facial expression is peaceful but the man's face was far from peaceful. _

_She took a deep breath and walked to the man on the table. There were deep cuts all over his body and his chest was partly open. 'Sloppy job', she thought. She noticed that the man's hands were covered with blood and there was also blood under his fingernails. She figured he had done the wounds on himself trying to cut his organs out of his body by himself. _

"_Hotaru take his heart", Gâo said form the doorway, "there's a seal on it. And it we need to be able to use it again." _

"_Yes", she said and started working on the man. He was barely alive. She silently cursed the man on the doorway. Gâo felt nothing for anyone, it didn't bother him that there was a man dying in the room and his heart would be ripped from his body while he was still alive. All that for his own benefit. _

_She was glad for the fact the man wasn't conscious. He wouldn't feel as much pain as he would if he was conscious. She looked at the wound on his chest. It seemed as if he had been desperate to get his own heart first, he must've really wanted to destroy the seal before anyone would get his hands on it._

_There was a scalpel on the table next to the man and she picked it up. She made the wound on his chest bigger. "Do you have a container ready?" she asked. She'd be done quickly._

"_Yes", the man somewhere behind her said and brought the container. He placed it on the table in front of her. _

"_Okay, here we go", she said mostly to herself and started cutting the blood veins that lead to the man's heart. She prayed he'd go into a better place. _

_As she saw the heart in the man's body, another wave of fear washed over her. This time the wave was bigger. The heart was a seal and she could read it. The surface of it was full of black text. As she worked on getting the heart in one piece from the body, she read as much as she could and realized the man was a jinchuriki. All his power and the thing inside of him were sealed in his heart. And, she was about to give the heart to Gâo. She didn't want to think about what he'd do with the heart although she already knew. She felt sick._

_THE END OF THE FLASHBACK_

_

* * *

_

Kakashi was bent down on a body lying on the ground. Her neck had been twisted. Her clothes were all bloody and it seemed like there was a rougher battle going on. There was blood all over the grass around her body. She had been a ninja from Konoha, she was still wearing the forehead plate. But he didn't recognize her.

Her facial expression was something between horrified and angry, it made him wonder if she had ever met her killer before. _'This is war. Most likely they hadn't ever met before'_, he thought and picked up the body from the ground. He'd take her to place back of their campsite where they buried the dead.

Every day they found new corpses and the battles got tougher. He wished the countries would find reconciliation but he knew his hope was a fool's hope.

He reached the campsite and walked to the area behind it. No one spoke to him on the way there even though he saw many familiar faces. It was hard for everyone, carrying bodies to the graves, seeing friends die. There was already one open grave and he placed the woman's body there carefully. He took the shovel next to him and started filling the grave with dirt.

"We've got a lead on Gâo", he heard Sasuke saying somewhere behind him. He didn't reply but listened to his old student, "We are to leave in an hour."

They could've kept on doing missions from the village but the borders needed defending. There weren't a lot of ninjas who did missions, most of the ninjas were defending and battling nearby their stations. Kakashi, Sasuke and Genma were the only ninjas allowed to go on missions. Naruto came along every now and then but usually he had more important jobs to do.

When he was finished burying the woman, he breathed heavily and looked around. There were many empty graves around him. The sight was something dreadful. He wasn't sure if he was one of those graves one day or would he be the one to bury more of his friends. The truth was that he had seen enough dead for one lifetime.

He turned around and walked to the main tent. His legs felt heavy and he was sure he had aged over one decade during the past week. Everything he saw around him was either death or worry. Nobody seemed to laugh anymore. He hoped she still laughed.

He stepped into the big tent and looked around. There were a few tables and he saw his friends accompanied by Naruto at one of the corner tables.

"Yo", he said as he reached them. He got the normal "heys and yos" and sat down next to Genma.

"There have been sightings of a few Gâo's inner circle. You're going after them. If you see him, you take him down and end this war. If he's not there, question them and follow the leads as long as needed", Naruto explained.

The mission was far from normal mission. As he understood Naruto's words, they were supposed to hunt Gâo down 'til they'd kill him or he was found dead. It could take days, years or forever.

* * *

Hinata was in her bedroom sitting on her bed and hugging a pillow. She looked at her engagement ring. It was silver and it had a heart shaped blue diamond and on the rock's either side there were smaller transparent diamonds. She loved it. He had made a promise to her, a promise she had been hoping and waiting for a long time. She smiled to herself and hugged the pillow in her arms. A knock on the door shifted her attention from Naruto to her father who she saw opening her door.

"What are you doing?" he asked and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Just thinking", she said and hoped he'd go away. She wasn't in a mood to talk to him, hear him complaining about her or listen to him at all. He was her father, yes, she loved him, yes, but she hated him.

"You should be training. Hanabi hasn't done anything else but training during the last days", he notified.

She hated when he compared her to everyone else and made her lose. She was his first daughter for crying out loud. She felt like showing him the middle finger but she knew it'd be a petty thing to do. "I'm training later", she said evenly. She just wanted him to go and leave her alone.

"Tell me something", he said and walked to her bed slowly, "did the Hokage propose to you?"

She felt as if lighting had struck her. He wasn't supposed to know and this wasn't how she wanted to tell him the good news. By judging his tone, he didn't sound as pleased as she had hoped for. "Yes", she said and for once, was happy he couldn't see her face. She felt hurt and she knew if he saw the visible pain in her eyes, he'd scold her.

"Why?" he asked.

"I do not know father. Maybe he loves me?" she said sarcastically and thanked higher powers in her mind that Sakura had taught her a thing or two during their years away. Though, she knew she could never talk as the pink haired woman sometimes did but she had improved.

He only scoffed and walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

For a moment she just stared at the empty space where he had stood. She didn't understand how he was unable to be happy for her. She was marrying the Hokage. She had become a better ninja that he had ever hoped for and most of all, she was happy. Why couldn't he just be happy for her?

Quickly, she jumped up from the bed and walked to her closet. She threw some clothes to her bed with her backpack. Then she walked to the bathroom next to her room and took her toothbrush and other essentials. She packed her bag and left her room through the window. Never before had she done something so hastily but she had never before felt this good about any decision apart from saying "yes" to Naruto. She had no idea where she would go so she decided to go to Sakura's cottage, talk to her and figure things out.

'_Things will be fine'_, she thought smiling. She was scared about the future but in a good way. This would be the start of a happy ending to her. She hoped she'd remain as positive for a long time.

Reaching the small cottage, she found her pink haired friend working in the garden. Sakura was pulling the weeds and Hinata wasn't sure if she had heard right but it seemed like she was talking to the flowers.

"Hey", the white eyed woman said a bit nervously. She wasn't sure how her friend would react to her new decision.

"Oh hey!" Sakura said smiling and got up from the grass, "what's up? Why do you have a backpack? Oh no, are you leaving?"

"No, no, I'm not. Well, I am. I've decided to move away. Right now", Hinata said and dropped the backpack to the ground. She was so tired of being pushed around by her father. She wouldn't take any of it anymore. Never again.

"Oh. Wow", her friend said. Her facial expression was surprised but happy. "I've been waiting for you to do that for some time now", she said honestly and walked to hug her.

"Thanks", Hinata said. She was dumfounded. She had expected that Sakura would be happy but not that happy.

"Let's go inside and get some tea. We'll figure out where to get an apartment and furniture and sort out all the details", Sakura said. She picked up the backpack from the ground and followed her friend inside.

* * *

Kakashi was the first one to step into the apartment. They felt only one female presence inside but it didn't mean she was alone there. He left the door open and looked around. He was in the hallway and it lead to his right and left. He felt the woman on somewhere right so he walked along the hallway there. He found himself in a kitchen looking at a shaking woman.

She looked about 30 years old, her hair was short and brown and her skin was full of visible cuts. Her eyes reflected fear as she looked at him but she didn't move.

"I'm not here to hurt you", he said calmly hoping she wouldn't start screaming or try to escape.

She nodded and he took a step forward. For a second she looked alarmed and he stopped dead in his movements. He knew he needed her trust so she'd tell anything. She seemed to calm down as he stopped moving toward her.

She was sitting on a kitchen chair and leaning on a round kitchen table. He saw some small puddles of water on the table and judging by the state she seemed to be in, he figured the puddles were actually tears. She was squeezing her hands together as if she had been praying for a miracle. It was all clear to him, Gâo had used her in a way or another and she was wallowing in grief and self pity. She was their best lead, she'd tell his location easily.

Genma and Sasuke walked into the room. "It's clear. She's a lone", Kakashi heard the brown haired man saying.

Again, the woman looked alarmed and ready to scream but the Copy ninja spoke first: "They are not to hurt you either. We just need some information about a man."

"Gâo", the woman whimpered and tears flowed from her eyes.

"Yes", Kakashi said, "you know him. Did he do this to you? We need your help to stop him."

She stared at him unblinking. She looked like she was considering talking to them but she was afraid. She breathed in deep and closed her eyes. "He's somewhere in Bird Country. That's all I know about his location. I trust that is what you came here for", she said evenly and opened her eyes. They showed determination.

"We will stop him", Kakashi said.

"I hope so", she said and turned her head to look out of the window on her right.

He trusted in her words. He had met women like her before and they always spoke the truth because they always wanted revenge. Whatever had the men done, they needed to get their revenge. He turned to look at his companions and nodded.

"Ma'am", he said and bowed a little to her. He left the room following Genma and Sasuke.

When they reached outside, he looked up to the sky which was getting darker. It was an early evening and he could see a few stars here and there in the sky. He wondered what Sakura was doing. He wished he was in the bathtub again with her. Whenever she was in the same room with her, death or pain didn't exist in his world. Now that he was far away from her, everything around him was either pain or death.

* * *

For Sakura's dismay days and weeks passed by slowly. Her normal day consisted waking up, going to work in the hospital, coming home late at night and falling asleep. She felt somewhat living dead, a lifeless body. During weekends they worked on the cottage with Hinata transforming room into a beautiful bedroom. The room had been used as a storage room before and it was full of dust, the drapers on the wall were stained and parts of them were ripped.

It was an early morning and Sakura stumbled down the stairs to the first floor and made her way to the kitchen. She smelled the aroma of freshly made coffee and smiled hazily.

"Morning", she heard her white eyed friend saying as she made her way to the mugs and coffeepot.

"Good morning", Sakura chirped after taking the first sip of her coffee. She blinked the remains of sleep from her eyes and smiled to her friend who was reading the morning newspaper. She started taking some ingredients from the cupboards and the fridge. She was planning to make omelettes as breakfast.

They had grown back into their old routine from their long mission. Hinata had always been the one to wake up first so she made the coffee and read the newspaper first and when Sakura found her strength to get up from the bed, she got one cup of coffee right away and cooked the breakfast. It was simple yet efficient.

They had also started renovating and old room in the cottage that had been used as a storage room. Sakura had vague memory that it had been once a bedroom. They had disposed of all the unneeded things from the room, changed the drapers and cleaned the room thoroughly. Hinata had used that as her bedroom for a couple of days.

"I think I've found the perfect apartment", the white eyed girl said and Sakura turned to look at her pausing in her actions.

"You do realize that there's no hurry in finding one? I mean… I like having company here", she said.

Hinata nodded and flipped a page on newspaper in front of her, "I know and I love being here but… I feel like I need to start my own life. And, the apartment is so beautiful. Will you come today and check it out with me?"

"Sure, of course!" she said and resumed making the omelettes.

***

Sakura was doing her rounds in the hospital, checking how the children were and doing some of the nurses' jobs. There hadn't been a lot of work and she had found working made the time pass faster. Plus the nurses didn't mind having extra breaks or longer lunch hours.

She was in the third floor where the oldest patients were. She was in the lounge serving the patients tea and having small talk with them with a couple of other nurses. She had grown fond of a couple former ninjas who had become a little senile. Daisuke and Haru were brothers and both of them were over 80 year old. Daisuke always talked about the old glory days and previous Hokages and his big adventures and missions. Haru was a few years younger than his brother and he often wanted to play chess with Sakura. He didn't talk much except when they were playing, he'd teach her different tactics and talk about his jutsus. Sometimes he'd talk about his wife, Ai, and their life together. Sakura loved spending time with the old men, she loved to listen to their stories and watching the brothers bickering like an old married couple reminded her of Sasuke and Naruto.

The men were telling her about their last mission as the head nurse rushed into the patients' lounge. Sakura turned to look at the woman. No one ever rushed in the hospital like that except if it was an emergency.

"The base camp in North-West border of Fire was attacked yesterday. They're bringing some badly wounded ninjas right now", the nurse said and she looked around alarmed.

"Excuse-me, I will be back later", she said politely to the brothers and rushed out of the room with the head nurse.

She felt as if the blood in her veins were frozen. She was afraid they'd bring Kakashi half dead to her but she was more afraid that they wouldn't bring him back to her. She wouldn't know where he was, if he was okay or dead.

Reaching the ER she didn't feel Kakashi or see him. But as she saw Shizune coughing up blood, she ran to her and began healing her throat and lungs. She dismissed the medics who had been attending to the black haired woman.

She was still conscious but her facial expression was terrified and she was coughing violently. She was breathing heavily, she was coughing to hard at times to breathe. It seemed like she was in too much pain to recognize Sakura or the place she was in.

"Hey, it's me, Sakura. You'll be alright", the pink haired woman said reassuringly and her friend's breathing slowed down bit.

There were some wounds in her throat and lungs and she started healing them first. The black haired woman coughed less and less. There were also couple broken rib bones and smaller cuts and bruises but after healing her lungs and throat, her condition was stable.

"Hey", Shizune croaked as she regained herself. She had been sleeping lightly less than an hour. Sakura had been in the ER the whole time waiting for her friend to wake up.

"What happened?" the pink haired woman asked worriedly. She was scared they were losing the war and that Kakashi, Naruto or Sasuke was dead. Her heart was racing and she could hear her heartbeat in her head.

"We got attacked. Naruto came later and saved us. They were so many… Maybe 40 ninjas at once. They couldn't heal all of us at the base camp so Naruto got us somehow here. I don't know…" Shizune's voice trailed off and she tried to blink some tears away. Her eyes wandered around the ceiling and the room finally resting on Sakura. "I don't know where Kakashi is."

"You didn't see him?" she asked. She was afraid her voice would tremble and tears escape from her eyes but she kept her cool by biting her inner cheek.

"He left… for a mission but he could've come back. I really don't know. I'm so sorry", the black haired woman said and closed her eyes. Soon, she drifted into sleep.

Sakura found herself wandering on the halls of the hospital. She had no idea where she was going or what she was doing. She was trying to regain her thoughts but her mind was set on seeing Kakashi. She wanted to travel around the world, find him and bring him back home. She knew it was impossible but her desires had always been unrealistic.

She forced herself to go back to the ER and heal as much as possible. She was getting a headache from keeping her thoughts at bay but she knew it was necessary so she could work. She healed, checked patients' statuses, drank some water, healed and did her rounds. She had been working in the hospital years ago and it was all natural for her. But making herself not to think wasn't something she was used to.

When her day was over, she walked to Kakashi's house. He had given her a key so she could water his plants and take his mail inside. She used the key and went inside. Looking around for a moment she let her eyes get used to the dim light. It was dark outside and she didn't want to turn on the lights. She kicked off her shoes and walked to his bedroom on the second floor.

She could smell his scent in the room and she let herself enjoy it for some time. Just standing and breathing, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine how his hands felt on her skin. Realizing how much she missed him and needed him, she stripped herself from her t shirt and pants. She shivered in her undergarments and went to his bed. Slipped under the covers and placed her head on his pillow.

Tears formed in her eyes and escaped to the pillow.

* * *

**This chapter was a bit... gloomy. But that was the point. **


End file.
